I'm sorry Derek that I didn't make myself clear. I understand that it is your Power steering pump that you are trying to fit up. I was just comparing it to my alternator problems. When I went to install my alternator I was trying to use the upper bolt hole on the head and the factory bracket was coming up short like your PS pump bracket. Almost fit but not quite. After going to a local car show. I found that I was missing part of a bracket that bolted on the head that actually put the location of my alternator in closer so that the factory bracket would bolt to the water pump. I thought this might be the case with your PS pump and bracketry.

 

Lakotas, I see what you're talking about now. Unfortunately the bracket itself won't fit on any of the bolts on the water pump. I am sure that if I had the attachment you are talking about for the p/s side, it would move the one bolt over to where I could attach it to the water pump, but only one would bolt in and the other hole would still be off the pump.

I decided to put my homework on hold (shame on me) because I was excited to see if the water pump for a 70 F100 would work. I went and picked one up and put it one. Success....well almost.



The p/s bracket lined up perfectly and I got the pump installed. But I ran into a couple more problems though. First, the alternator bracket doesn't mount flush on the new water pump. The bottom bolt is about a half inch too far out.



Sorry for the blurry picture, but I think it's clear enough to be able to see. Also, when I tried to put the tension bracket on, if I put it on the lower bolt (which was the only one that would work on the bottom side of the pump that I could see) it hits the fan on the alternator. I had to use a bolt on the top of the water pump which put the alternator really high on the engine. I didn't like the look of it, but if I had to, I guess I could deal with it. The second problem was the pulleys. The new water pump is about 1/4" longer. So when I put the pulley onto it, it doesn't line up with the pulley on the harmonic balancer.

I returned the pump so that I wouldn't have an extra one, but if anyone knows of something I am doing wrong, I'll go buy it again and do it right.

 

Derek,

Welcome to the world of Ford accessory drives. Sometimes it seems like the engineers changed the accessory drive configuration about as often as they changed their underwear. For instance, in 1987, the same 5.0L V-8 could have had 3 completely different accessory drive arrangements depending on which vehicle it was in. Multiply that insanity by the 40 year production run of the small block V-8, and you've got a stupid number of possibiliteis and combinations. The aftermarket complicates things even further. I think the union of aftermarket and stock parts here is what's causing your newest issues.

On to your problems - Every small block that I've ever worked on with that alternator bracket configuration has the adjustment arm mounted under the lower pivot bracket bolt in the gap you pictured. The chrome arm that you've got isn't bent the way a stock Ford arm is and is likely just the vendor's generic alternator arm. It also looks too long. You mak have to bend it, shorten it, and redrill it to get it to fit right. It would be best to find the correct OE arm to use as a pattern.

As for your pulley alignment issue, what kind of harmonic damper are you using? There were several different thicknesses from the factory. Yours looks like a Professional Products aftermarket unit from what little I can see of it. If it is, then you're in luck. Professional Products manufactures their dampers to the thinnest spec that Ford ever used. They then make special piloted aluminum spacers to go between the damper and the pulley to shim it out for proper pulley alignment on the thicker applications. If that's what you have, then you just need to order the correct spacer. They're easy to find on eBay and not very expensive.

On the other hand, if that's a stock damper, then you've just plain got the wrong one to work with the offset of those shiny chrome pullies.

 

I used an alternator bracket just like yours and had exactly the same problem. I just adjusted the bracket with a vice and some careful tweaking and got it to fit ok and clear everything. The new bracket itself was definantly the cause of the problem in my case.