Camaro pulley

Jan 28, 2004 8 Replies

I have a problem with belt alignment on my car. It is a 1967 Camaro with a crate engine and short water pump. The problem I'm having is that the crankshaft pulley is in too far by ~1/4". This keeps the belts from lining up with the water pump pulley. I need to find out if I have the correct pulley for this engine.



I have been told that the correct crank pulley for a 350cid/295hp is actually 2 pulleys, one for the alternator and A/C compressor that goes on first and another pulley that nests inside this one for the power steering. Is this correct?



The current pulley I have is a 3 groove pulley GM part # 3751232. It has the letters BB beside the part #. Maybe this stands for Big Block



Is there anyone out there that has any information on this?



Thanks


UPDATE:

My "3 groove pulley" was actually 2 pulleys that were half painted, half rusted together. Closer inspection revealed this and I was able to pry the two pulleys apart. This answered one part of my question. I still have a problem with the pulleys being in 1/4" too far on the crankshaft. Does anyone have any suggestions on why this is occuring or how to correct it?

thanks

Here's something for you.,

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Good luck

...Ron

--

68' RS Camaro 88' Formula Bird

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Some are wise and some are otherwise

Thanks Ron.

I did run across this website when I was searching for the part # of the pulley. What I can't figure out is why I have such a large (1/4") offset between the crank pulley and the water pump pulley. I thought that the water pump pulley might be incorrect but when I measured how much deeper it would have to be to line up with the crank pulley, I found out that it would be 1/16" or so from touching the water pump which seems to be too close.

Has anyone ever heard of using a spacer between the harmonic balancer and the crank pulley?

Hi Gary,

Yes, I have used chrome pulleys in the past. I got poor results also. Regarding the misalignment, I suppose I could make a spacer between the crank pulley and the balancer. I would have to be sure that it is perfectly balanced since it would be rotating quite rapidly. That makes me think that I'd need to go to a machine shop. I keep hoping there's a less expensive solution.

When I bought this car 14 years ago, I noticed that after awhile I would get alot of "belt dust" on the alternator. By belt dust I mean that the belt was rubbing excessively on the pulley causing increased wear. I wasn't concerned about it at the time. Now, I think that is what might occur if a misalignment was present. I figured that with an new engine and water pump, the misalignment problem might go away but I wasn't that lucky.

Do you see evidence of increased belt wear on your truck?

For 14 years the belts didn't align. So you use the same pulley on a crate motor with the same results? Egads! Call Year One and ask for the correct pullies.

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The wrong water pump and alternator pullies will destroy belts, and cause a 1/4 inch gap with ease. Over the last 54 years GM has made more pulley combinations that will bolt to a SBC then I could list in a week.

Charles

Yeah, that sounds bad doesn't it. Maybe I should clarify. I bought the car

14 years ago and drove it for about 1 year. It has been parked since 1991. When I installed the crate motor, I remembered that this misalignment that I see now was present back in 1991.

Hi Gary,

You were right about the water pump hub. I didn't have the tools to do it (large hydraulic press) but a friend did. He pressed the hub further in. It's running now with no alignment problem. Thanks for your help!

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