Hi all,

I'm in need of a bit of help. My father bought a '74 Camaro a year or two ago with a knackered motor (stroked 350 which had cooked and lunched itself, consisting mostly of as best I can tell, unbranded e-bay parts).

He's in the process of restoring the body and bought an assembled motor with no accessories from a local bloke; the car itself came with a rather eBay looking serpentine belt setup which is heavy, ugly and I am just plain not sure I can trust it.

To complicate things further, the pulley for the water pump is missing (as was the pump) and I've gone and got what I assume is the wrong pump to replace it if I need it all to work with the Serpentine setup.


The pump I bought is a WP2593US - short nose pump per Precision international. US Motor Works US898 water pump - Precision Australia - I assume I should have purchased a reverse flow long nose pump from further research.

HOWEVER.

Given the questionable origins and quality of the parts I have been furnished from the previous engine (power steering pump, A/C compressor... and assuming I can find it, alternator)- I am beginning to think that maybe this is a blessing in disguise.

Can I use the Short Leg pump with any motor assuming I get belts to line up?

I have no other brackets; I see there are plenty of "bling" v-belt bracket setups available from many sources; am I best to get power steering, alternator brackets etc and source normal accessories to fit to said brackets? Can a serpentine power steering pump be used with a normal pulley in whatever bling or not-so-bling brackets I end up sourcing if wanting to go back to V-belt?

I guess you'll probably need photos of things but rather than taking a shotgun approach to that, please - let me know what you specifically need photos of to help me and I will do my best to take them!

 

Yes, what you got was the early "short" style pump. You would need to change all your brackets, pulleys, and move the alternator over to the drivers side of the engine. Too much work to be worth it unless you needed to keep the engine more compact. You would be better off getting the long style pump. The pump for a factory serpentine setup (where the belt drives the pump counter-clockwise off the back side of the belt) is reverse rotation not "reverse flow". Still flows the same, just turns the opposite direction. With the right serpentine pulleys having the belt drive like a v-belt, you can rotate the pump clockwise like it should be, I have that on mine. And yes, a picture would be helpful to determnie whether you have an adapted newer reverse rotation style serpentine setup, or a cobbled together conventional flow.

 

Or you could use a water pump spacer under the pulley to position the pulley out farther and align with the other pulleys. They sell them in several thicknesses from thin shims to around 1", depending on what you need.

 

I'm in Australia (the car is a converted RHD car too) so I can't easily just duck down to a wrecking yard and pick up the parts I need.... I've not got the original bracketry, just the abortion in the pictures:

 

Any idea as to what the serpentine setup is? Is it just cheap eBay junk or something half decent and worth working with?

 

Your assembly is very similar to what the factory setup was like on my old 3rd gen Camaro.
That makes for one butt-ugly looking engine in a 2nd gen though!

 

I guess my question then is should I persist with this serpentine setup (and get the correct water pump) or am I better off getting brackets and standard style accessories to mount to the motor, and along the way working with the water pump I already got?

 

What you have will work with the right style pump. If the looks don't bother you, then you might as well leave it be.

 

I'm not so worried about the looks as I am the quality of the gear. The stuff on the original motor all looks to be from the "cheapest e-bay had to offer at the time" method of shopping; I'm just concerned the P/S pump, A/C compressor and Alt (I'm yet to discover if there was even one with the car) will all be similarly questionable.

I guess if there's no alternator, then perhaps it becomes time to go back to more traditional looking V-belts and use the pump I have; if there's an alterntor and it looks like a decent quality one I'll change out the pump.