I thought I'd post some pics of a little challenge I faced. I bought a blown 340 71 Duster a few months ago and figured I'd take the winter to sort it out. It was a good platform for fixing up and did not need restoration - it just needed a lot of attention. Previous owner had done some great work to it and spent a lot of money on the tubbing, interior, engine etc but fell on hard times and finished the car on the cheap and I mean real cheap. I was surprised how to same person that could do such nice work, could also do such bad work. No need to go into details, but all the cheap stuff has been fixed or replaced.
In any event, the blower belt left no room to mount the water pump - electric or mechanical on the front of the engine and would have also interfered with the alternator belt. So the previous owner mounted an electric water pump under the radiator and it looked horrible - it looked like a big boogie hanging out of someone's nose - but on a car instead.
So we got creative and also spent some money on a longer snout for the blower to move the belt forward. Moving the blower belt forward gave us room for the water pump. but the alternator belt would still be a problem and interfere with the lower radiator hose. Using an electric pump gave us the option of running the lower hose over to the drivers side of the water pump and plumbing it in there, but that would have looked bad and this was exactly the kind of work I was trying to do away with. So we made our own alternator mounting brackets and relo'd the alternator down lower and it's worked out nicely.
here are a few pics. (the blower snout and blower belt are not on in the pics but there's plenty of clearance all around.
In any event, the blower belt left no room to mount the water pump - electric or mechanical on the front of the engine and would have also interfered with the alternator belt. So the previous owner mounted an electric water pump under the radiator and it looked horrible - it looked like a big boogie hanging out of someone's nose - but on a car instead.
So we got creative and also spent some money on a longer snout for the blower to move the belt forward. Moving the blower belt forward gave us room for the water pump. but the alternator belt would still be a problem and interfere with the lower radiator hose. Using an electric pump gave us the option of running the lower hose over to the drivers side of the water pump and plumbing it in there, but that would have looked bad and this was exactly the kind of work I was trying to do away with. So we made our own alternator mounting brackets and relo'd the alternator down lower and it's worked out nicely.
here are a few pics. (the blower snout and blower belt are not on in the pics but there's plenty of clearance all around.
