Different alt bracket for Edelbrock heads

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Uncle Bob

Uncle Bob

Shiny paint causes stress.
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I bought a bog-standard AMD or whatever reproduction alternator bracket and it doesn't seem to fit Edelbrock heads. See photos:

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Is that expected? I don't think I've got it on wrong, it only seems to go one way.

Thanks,
 
unhook the lower bolt, see if the upper bolt can wiggle and get into that head. then maybe you'll just have to tweak the lower bracket.
 
You need to space the water pump and crank pulleys out to fit the aftermarket aluminum heads. Mancini and Summit have various thickness spacers and water pump pulley spacers and shim kits. You'll probably have to shim the alternator bracket and alternator off of the head and water pump, too. It's one of the worst PITA's with aftermarket heads on a small block, but unfortunately, it's part of the price of admission.
 
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Thanks all. I thought going from a B block to an LA would make things simpler but no dice.
abodyjoe said:
std. bracket should fit..
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That's why I bought a reproduction bracket. Figured it would be the same. Apparently not.
abodyjoe said:
unhook the lower bolt, see if the upper bolt can wiggle and get into that head. then maybe you'll just have to tweak the lower bracket.
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Will give it a shot but I'm skeptical and concerned I'll end up screwing up the threads in the head.

4spdragtop said:
Flipping the bracket top for bottom doesn't help?
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I did flip it over and that put the bracket way too low.

Garrett Ellison said:
You need to space the water pump and crank pulleys out to fit the aftermarket aluminum heads. Mancini and Summit have various thickness spacers and water pump pulley spacers and shim kits. You'll probably have to shim the alternator bracket and alternator off of the head and water pump, too. It's one of the worst PITA's with aftermarket heads on a small block, but unfortunately, it's part of the price of admission.
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If that's the case I should go ahead and put the balancer/pulley on it and work out from that.
 
Uncle Bob said:
If that's the case I should go ahead and put the balancer/pulley on it and work out from that.
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Yes, that's the correct way of doing it! The minimum amount of spacing is usually the amount that the head overhangs the block by, but it's usually a little more because of the availibilty of shim and spacer thicknesses. And it's usually better to make yourself a little extra room to work, unless you're planning on driving a full stack of accessories off the front of the engine. I can tell you that air coonditioning and power steering makes things interestng in a bad way in a hurry.
 
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I agree with getting damper/crank pulley 1st and work from there. Different balancers may put pulleys in different positions.
 
I put the balancer and pulleys on and the water pump and power steering pump both drive off the front most crank pulley. The alternator looks like it drives off the middle pulley on the crank. There is no way I'm going to wiggle things around with that alternator bracket and get it to work. It's not just a matter of needing a spacer to fill out the space - the bolt/bolt hole isn't in the right place.

At least one thing made me laugh. Which is really zero?
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Might need to loosen the bolts in the water pump to get some wiggle room, it’s a tight fit. Think you and I have the same setup and mine fits.

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Garrett Ellison said:
You need to space the water pump and crank pulleys out to fit the aftermarket aluminum heads. Mancini and Summit have various thickness spacers and water pump pulley spacers and shim kits. You'll probably have to shim the alternator bracket and alternator off of the head and water pump, too. It's one of the worst PITA's with aftermarket heads on a small block, but unfortunately, it's part of the price of admission.
Click to expand...

i didn't do any spacing on my eddy heads. bought a std repop braket and bolted it on. everything fit correctly.
 
abodyjoe said:
i didn't do any spacing on my eddy heads. bought a std repop braket and bolted it on. everything fit correctly.
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I found an old chrome one that I had kept because it wouldn't fit on the last small block I had - surprise it fits this one. Now, the bolt that came with the bracket kit is about an inch too long.

I need to get different pulleys too. The ones I've got are for an A/C car and this one isn't. There's no way to drive the alternator belt off the crank pulley alone. Pretty sure I need both crank and WP pulleys to make this work.
 
Uncle Bob said:
I found an old chrome one that I had kept because it wouldn't fit on the last small block I had - surprise it fits this one. Now, the bolt that came with the bracket kit is about an inch too long.

I need to get different pulleys too. The ones I've got are for an A/C car and this one isn't. There's no way to drive the alternator belt off the crank pulley alone. Pretty sure I need both crank and WP pulleys to make this work.
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Mine was an A/C car as well, picked up a pulley set from Mancini years ago.
 
Uncle Bob said:
I found an old chrome one that I had kept because it wouldn't fit on the last small block I had - surprise it fits this one. Now, the bolt that came with the bracket kit is about an inch too long.

I need to get different pulleys too. The ones I've got are for an A/C car and this one isn't. There's no way to drive the alternator belt off the crank pulley alone. Pretty sure I need both crank and WP pulleys to make this work.
Click to expand...

correct, you need non a/c pulleys.. water pump and crank.
 
AR Engineering brackets and Denso alternator works great on my Speedmaster headed 318.
I was aware of clearance issues with square back alts. I heard a round back works but those are inferior to the square backs?
 
I dont know if this will help but on my BB the alternator needs to have a thin line between the halfs or the rear hits my aluminum heads. You have the fat center section. My alternator guy set me up. BTW the skinny one on the right is a Rock auto unit from a late model ? Omni. Pulled the serp belt pulley and presses on a single groove from Bouchelon. 78 amp

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This is it with the chrome mount.

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Uncle Bob said:
Now, the bolt that came with the bracket kit is about an inch too long.
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Turns out what I needed was to put the small spacer between the alternator and the bolt. The whole kit was usable except for the mount to the water pump.
 
Uncle Bob said:
Thanks all. I thought going from a B block to an LA would make things simpler but no dice.

That's why I bought a reproduction bracket. Figured it would be the same. Apparently not.

Will give it a shot but I'm skeptical and concerned I'll end up screwing up the threads in the head.


I did flip it over and that put the bracket way too low.


If that's the case I should go ahead and put the balancer/pulley on it and work out from that.
Click to expand...

Or, you could do like I did , and make ur own , ain't that hard !
 
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