I needed to swap my F100 514 motor to a serpentine setup for a couple of reasons. The high amp alternator single belt wouldn't stay on at higher RPMs until I put a larger pulley on it which worked but also slowed the alternator down. I didn't have anything on it to tension the belt between the water pump and crank, so I found a belt that was the proper length between the two pulleys but it was always hard to put on. I also needed to add a power steering pump for the Crown Vic rack. I wanted to use a pump compatible to the rack so plumbing it wouldn't be difficult. I looked at the factory serpentine setups, I found several but they are so heavy and are definitely engineered to be function over form and have no concern given to cosmetics.

I looked at the aftermarket kits but honestly didn't want to spend that much on it. I like to have as many OEM parts as possible to make maintaining it easier down the road. I went to the local junkyard and found a collection of pulleys and a tensioner that fit surprisingly well. I had to pay attention to driving the water pump in it's conventional direction since there is no OEM reverse rotation pump available. The upper pulley is off a 4 cylinder Ranger; I had to open the center hole up a few thousands but the bolt pattern lined up perfect. The lower pulley is off a late 80s 5.0 F150 and bolted on to the damper without modification. The pulleys lined up perfectly. Alternator is from a Taurus, I believe its a 135 amp unit converted to a one wire arrangement that works great with it's internal regulator. The power steering pump is off a Crown Vic which made the hose connections simple and the tensioner is off a Taurus. The power steering reservoir is from an Expedition. The water pump has a driver side outlet and there seems to be a different configuration for the brackets with a passenger side pump, so this would have to be a consideration.

It was quite a task to align everything and time consuming to make all the brackets, but I have about 70 bucks in the parts used. Overall the whole challenge with this type of conversion is how far forward the alternator and power steering pump has to be mounted to align with the crank and water pump. They have to be rigidly mounted. Once I finished mocking everything up I looped a string around the pulleys and came up with a 63 inch belt that fit perfectly, it cost 18 bucks, was in stock at the parts store and is an OEM length belt for a V6 Dodge motor. I still need to pull everything back off and detail/paint it but I've been driving it for a couple of days now and everything seems to be working as it should; I did some high RPM blasts yesterday and all good.

I looked here previously to see if anyone came up with any alternates to the later model truck or high dollar aftermarket stuff but didn't really see anything done this way, just sharing some ideas with you guys.

 

Nice setup! Any chance you made templates of your brackets? I'd love to copy them as I'm dealing with swapping in a 460 with a collection of brackets and accessories from serpentine and v belt engines and nothing is going my way at this point.

 

No sorry didn't keep any templates. First off bolt on your crank and water pump pulleys; that is what you'll line everything else up with. Then I made two separate plates for each side of the power steering pump. Next I mocked up a piece of cardboard for the flat plate and then cut it out of the flat plate; take a ball peen and tap out the mount holes and bolt it on. Now you have to clamp the pump onto the flat plate with a c clamp and spend time aligning it with the wp/crank pulleys. Add in the braces, make it rigid so there is no flex. The stud you can see that screws into the head makes it SLIGHTLY adjustable, and you can always shim it out if you need to fine tune it.

I did the same thing on the other side; made the flat plate to mount the tensioner and then made the spacer behind it. The tensioner has an alignment pin to orient it correctly and I figured by making the bolt on spacer I could always pull it off and redrill or remake it if I needed to tweak the belt tension. Then space the alternator out enough to line it all up; I just cut the head off a bolt for the mock up and then made tube spacers in the right length once I got it lined up. On the tube spacer between the block and alt I made a bracket to bolt to the flat plate for strength. The Taurus alt has a small ear on it's back side that I used to make a third brace again just to make everything rigid.

A lot of patience, trial fitting and tack welding on the truck but by doing it that way you can customize it to your setup.

 

What prevented you from just pulling a whole serp setup from a junked efi 460 truck? I realize it may not be as nice looking, but would've saved you something.

 

A couple of reasons. The factory setup uses two belts instead of one and I'm not sure it would fit in the space I have. It also uses a different style power steering pump; the pump I used connected to the steering rack with stock hoses, no adapters or special hoses. I just don't like the way it looks either; I'm sure it's seriously overbuilt and bulletproof but it's just too bulky for the vibe of my truck.