Been a long time since I have popped in for a chat. Dan is still trucking when I need him but squeals about it if I put my foot into it too much. Throws belts if I don't let him have his way.

Turns out the power steering bracket is bent a bit. Least that is my deduction. Not sure if the pump itself is bad and too tough to turn? Any case, the pulley is not coplanar to the crank and water pump pulleys. It's a double pulley but can only use one belt. I had two belts on there but only the front will get tensioned properly leaving the second belt loose enough to get thrown and throw the other belt thusly knocking out my water pump.

The bracket is bulky as if there was at one point another pump of some sort above it. Maybe dealer AC? I have the condenser under the hood but piping was crudely cut off. I understand that dealer AC compressors where on the driver's side and factory AC was on the passenger side?

I am not sure the route to take here. Bracket looks like cast aluminum so don't want to try and bend it straight (bad idea as I understand it, maybe not?). Is there aftermarket solution like under $200 that would get a new bracket and pump? I would be up for that but not sure about the hoses, if they would be a custom jobber and costly.

Anywho, photo below shows what the belt looks like. It rides the front lip of the pulley.

 

I'm wondering if you couldn't shim the pump some. Maybe a flat washer between the pump body and the bracket on the bolt that's furthest from the camera?

 

You must have taken the picture in a snow storm as all I see is white nothing
Dave A what are you seeing?
Dave ----

 

Looks like copy and pasting an image in the editor does not upload it anymore. Added it the long way. Sorry about that.

 

I started to do that but then my wrench started to hit the pulley and didn't feel like "starting a project" on a Sunday at 630 in the evening. I have washers I planned to slip in between but maybe I could cut some in half and slide them in there that way.

 

That line up on the PSP pulley looks ok to me. A slight out of parallel condition on pulleys that far apart won't jump a belt. Either the tension is not tight enough or the belt needs replacing will cause a belt to jump.

On that double belt arrangement always change both belts together with the same belt.

 

It dose look like the pump is cocked and needs shims under the bracket to the water pump to kick that side out a little.
Or between the PSP and bracket on the far side.

I had an issue on my 300 six with the PSP belt making noise at start up and it also not lined up good.
Well had to replace the timing cover gasket and when going back together I checked and it all fell into place?
Dont know what was wrong before or I fixed going back together but all was good after.

Maybe pull it all apart check everything and put it back together yours may also fall into place?
Dave ----