Technical Small block chevy V-belt accessories

I need some education on v-belt accessories. I've got a small block in my 64 Impala that has a/c, power steering and of course an alternator and I have the accessories but not the brackets. I believe the car would have had a short water pump but can I swap to a long and with all the matching brackets work on the accessories?

Are there any cars in the junkyard worth robbing brackets off of that would work?

I've google'd the brackets but it looks like the few companies I looked at had the same custom brackets. This should be simple but it's turned into an ordeal for me.

 

Having done this before, I can completely agree with you that it's often NOT simple!

The big difference here is: which heads are you using? VERY GENERALLY speaking, '68 and earlier heads usually don't have all the threaded holes for accessory brackets that later heads have. If you have 'earlier' heads, you're limited on making the swap to the long water pump. This is complicated by the air conditioning... which may even require a specific exhaust manifold!

The first thing I'd do is take some good close-ups of the front of your heads and your exhaust manifolds to take with you on the search. You can also find the casting numbers on your heads and look them up on-line to see when they were made.

If you have 'early' heads and could find - say - a '68 or earlier Impala or Caprice with A/C, start by comparing the photos of your heads to those on the donor car. If the bolt holes are the same, just buy ALL the brackets from it and make sure that the exhaust manifolds are the same if the A/C bolts to it. That way you'll be able to stay with the short water pump. If you have 'later' heads, you can probably extend your donor search to cars that are a few years newer, but you'll need to use the 'long' water pump.

Either way, you'll also want to grab the crankshaft pulleys - and - if the donor car has it's fan belts, take them, too! That way you won't have to waste the time it will otherwise take to figure out which belts you need... Just take the old ones to the auto parts store and they can match them!

 

Don't overlook the 4.3 V-6 for brackets.

 

Thanks for the response Dave. The motor in the car is from and early 80's truck with a long water pump and three holes in the front of the heads and the only thing it has is the alternator. I'd like to find out if there was a car that came with the a/c compressor on the passenger side and alternator and steering pump on the driver. I made a trip to the junkyard and 80's Chevy vehicles are kinda scarce let alone earlier stuff.

I'm trying to keep from using a serpentine setup with newer accessories but I walked past a lot of those setups in the junkyard.

 

We've got a couple early 80's C-10's at the shop with air and ps on 305 engines. I'm pretty sure they're arranged like what you're looking for. Will try to remember to look at one tomorrow and post again.

 

Try Alan Grove. They have just what you need and they also will tell you what pulleys you need.

 

Something like this

 

I second that. I went from reverse rotation (serpentine) to standard rotation (V belt) on my SBC, of course I had to change the water pump. They had everything I needed.