Hello all

I’m trying to find information on the power steering bracket shown below.
Pictured is a LA-318 with the odd bracket and I’ve been unable to find any other pictures of it on the Internet. I can only find the common multi-piece bracket that places the pump down lower.

I was wondering what applications this bracket was used for. Years? Van? Truck? AC/non-AC/Both? Aftermarket? Frankenstein?
I have a 1977 Dodge (W200) M800 with a later year swapped in 360 with this bracket and I’m not sure why it has it and not the more common bracket.

Here is the link to the youtube video if you want to see different angles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQHIUll-hqI

Thanks

edit: oh and proper belt routing if possible for this bracket

 

That style fits my 1977 Dodge D150 WARLOCK 360.... No-A/C...

Look down in my Sig... You may go to my Photobucket and look under my "Your Bucket" Go to Page 5.. and see if you find a photo of it....

Welcome to the site...

 

Hello Thanks for the reply.

I found the pictures. It's hard to see but, I believe your bracket is a little different than mine. Yours appears to have a square punched in it for a breaker bar to help tension the belt where as mine does not.

Does your bracket have a piece that is bolted to the front of the left (driver) head and the intake manifold? I've include a picture of mine to compare.

I'm still curious what purpose this alternative pump bracket serves. convenience? (not having to reach down into the engine bay)

 

No it dose not have that small bracket....
My other guess would be that might be the van style?

 

Your right about the van. I did some more searching and managed to find a picture of the bracket. It seems to be used on 82-83 year vans and trucks (ramcharger DW-pickups) from what I can tell.

I uploaded the diagram here for safe keeping and it appears I'm missing a piece of of my bracket, Item 15 (Part #: 3733 582) Pump Adj.

Here are some links I found in my search.
http://ramchargercentral.com/vehicle...-belt-routing/
http://ramchargercentral.com/vehicle...kets-on-a-360/
http://ramchargercentral.com/vehicle...pump-brackets/
https://www.allpar.com/forums/thread...00-van.151268/
http://dodgeforum.com/forum/dodge-ra...t-routing.html

It would be nice if someone could upload a scan or hand doodle from a service/technical manual on the proper belt routing.

Hopefully this information will help someone else. Not being able to identify this bracket was buggy me.

 

Yes Number 15 would be the adjusting bracket you would use your breaker bar on the set the tension for the belt... And did mount behind the pulley...

As for the belt routing... looks like you almost got that rite..
1. Alternator, Water Pump, and crank, all on the rear set of pulleys...
2. P/S, Water Pump, and crank, on the next forward set of pulleys....

Now if the alignment is off.... I would say that something, somewhere got miss matched ?

But I would guess that you are running the match set of brackets with the rite pulley set.. As long as everything lines up?

The reason the P/S pump is so high is on quit a few engines the A.I.R. pump sits rite below the P/S pump unit..

I could take a few more pictures if you think you might need them?

 

Thanks I believe I have all the pictures I need.

It seems my truck has the wrong double groove water pump pulley.

From what I can tell there are two different versions of the double groove pulley for small block mopars. One for AC equipped engines which are more shallow (stubby hub) and one for Non-AC equipped engines which are deeper (tall hub) like the single groove pulley. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I have the the AC pulley which doesn't allow the alternator to share it's belt with the water pump. If there was an AC compressor it would share with it. But in my case it runs by itself.

It works, but it's not right. The perfectionist in me wont allow it so I'm currently trying to source the correct pulley.

Are there any part numbers/information that would help aid in my quest?

 

Ummmmmmmm... Not going to be that easy.... Wish it would be...
What I think you would run into is.... You get a set of pulley focusing on the alternator alignment and then with the Power Steering Pump off set. You wind up with that being off alignment.... Sorry. Hope that made sense?

So... My personal view would be to pick up a complete set of brackets and pulleys off an engine that did not have the "Intake head Bracket" along with P/S pump brackets..

And if all else fails... You could change over to the March Pulley drive system.. but man, those are pricey...

 

I understand what your saying.

But, It would take me forever to find the complete pulley set and It definitely wouldn't be from any of my local junkyards, they don't keep any of the old stuff around. They crush it quick.

Plus, there are some other factors about this truck I haven't mentioned since they weren't relevant to the thread subject.

The truck was converted to a flatbed (not by me) with a hydraulic dump which is ran off the power steering pump. I'm currently in the process of making repairs to this setup as it has been in disrepair for years. Which includes having the custom hoses that go from the pump to a bi-directional valve remade and picking a different application saginaw pump better suited for this setup (remote reservoir nipple instead of filler neck w/ pipe coupler). The pump I selected will work better with the 83 bracket, I just wanted to learn more about bracket itself.

I think what I'm going to do is make my current pulley work. I'm planning on swapping my alternator to a 3-wire acdelco. I've already done it to my other dodge truck and makes night and bad weather driving much better. When I mod or make alt brackets I'll engineer spacers in to move the alternator up to the unused groove on the water pump pulley. That way the water pump can have redundant belting as intended. It's by no means ideal but, I'm on a time limit and wasn't planning on not having all the parts I needed before tearing into the truck.

So, I think that's the plan at the moment.

Thank You for the help identifying the power steering bracketry.

 

Your welcome for any help.... Anytime....
As for the lift for the dump bed. I'm supersized to see that someone used the P/S pump for a body lift cylinder.. I would like to see that setup at some point.
Return must be just gravity drop back to the reservoir?

I use the Rugby MFG, Systems... Electric motor and a remote reservoir. Leaves me the room in the engine bay. And then we add an extra battery for the drive motor.

Anyhow.... The upgraded alternator conversion is a good one, cant go wrong on that one.

I like interesting things.... Thanks for sharing.... Keep us posted on how and what you did for the alignment issue...

 

A friend also recommended I go electric as it would simplify the setup but, to be honest I don't really need a dump, I just thought it was a cool setup and wanted to keep it working as an option.

The truck has a np203 transfer-case which have provisions for a PTO. I've daydreamed how cool it would be to have a PTO ran pump power the hydraulics but, that would be expensive and really difficult to source the parts needed to make it happen and again no real need for it.

As for the dump operation. The bed is power up, power down. When the control rod isn't being pulled (bed up) or pushed (bed down) and is sitting in the "default/neutral" position the valve is in bypass which allows the power steering gear to operate as normal.

When I have some time I'll upload some pictures I took before I took it apart and I'll be sure to upload more when I finish.

A little backstory on the truck itself. I bought it from my place of work. It was a facilities/grounds vehicle for a campus. I use to drive it almost everyday and at the time was the oldest truck in the fleet. Most of my co-workers hated it and instead used the newer trucks but, I thought it was the best thing ever so when it was retired I bought it. Drove it home (probably hadn't driven on public roads in 10 years). I've been working on fixing it up as my job would only fix it up enough to keep it idling and coasting around the campus.

 

You never know, walking around a salvage yard you might find all the parts needed for the power takeoff. A bome or service truce with a crane would have what you need.

 

That had occurred to me to find a retired service truck with a 203. Wouldn't have to be a dodge either but, I don't really need it; more of a fantasy and plus there are a lot of other things that need to be addressed on my truck first. Thanks for the tip though.

I attached some Before pictures of the engine bay... odd I thought I took more. I wish I had one that showed the wheel wells. The remote reservoir is bolted to the RH wheel well and the bi-directional valve is bolted on the LH wheel wheel. The control rod comes through the firewall and bolts to the valve.

In Pic1 - You can see the belt routing and water pump pulley. The alternator slide bracket should be on the next lower bolt. The red 3/4" hose runs off the reservoir and is clamped to the filler neck of the PS pump using plumbing pipe fitting and a rubber pipe coupler.

In Pic2 - It's been leaking along time. The bracket was incorrectly installed and was missing a critical piece (Item 7 Part # 3822 875 Bracket, Front). Luckily, when I proceed to replace the floor pans over the summer I found it behind the seat and thanks to that youtube video was able to identify it's purpose.

In Pic3 - Because of the missing piece 1) it made the pump cattywampus (lol love that word) with the water pump pulley 2) it set the pump to far back and was pressing the high pressure tube against the motor. Over time the vibrations rubbed a pin hole in it causing it to spray fluid onto the engine.

 

That is very interesting.....

 

I've never seen anything like that, Is a factory installation or something added after it was sold new?

 

The work was done at the technical school I work at.

From what I was told the truck was purchased through state surplus some time in the 90s. Shortly afterwards it was taken to the auto body/collision repair campus program to be repainted in blue (was military green). The wood flatbed was built by the now defunct building mechanic program. The welding program made the headache rack and mounted the dump to the truck frame.

The diesel technology program plumbed up this setup and was also involved in swapping in the 360 shortly after the 318 went bad or was a upgrade for plowing.. not sure which.

I found a few online articles about such conversions:
https://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/...ion-zmaz85zsie

https://www.farmshow.com/a_article.php?aid=7623

Also supposedly, the (saginaw) P/S pump was taken to a local hydraulic shop to be modified for more pressure and/or volume but, I don't know if thats true or if it was necessary.

http://www.gmtruckcentral.com/articl...rsteeringmods/

I found the above. That must be what they did. If I find the new pump doesn't perform as well as the old. I think I can swap the flow piston in from the old pump.

 

Alright. Got my alternator bracket made and power steering back together.

The charging system works good and no more leaky screaming pump. So success!

I designed the bracket to get my acdelco alternator and move it up to the available grove on the water pump pulley. It is made of 1/4 inch mild steel that I put in a bench vice, heated red and bent over to get the offset needed for pulley alignment. Of course easier said than done. I made 3 other brackets that didn’t’ work out before getting a working one. I had trouble getting the metal to bend where I had scribed my lines, so I cut half way through it, bent it and then welded up the gaps. The slide bracket I got the idea from a How-To written by goldduster318 at the Mopar Style forums. The original url was:

Adapting a GM 10si/12si alternator to a small block

However, it seems to no longer be a valid link. Fortunately, it can still be accessed on Wayback Machine.

I used his howto to convert the alternator on my other truck. It was easy and simple. Cutting and welding, no bending. In fact it was the first project I had every used my welder (Hobart Handler 140) on. I would have used this method again if I had the right pulley.

Quick side note/warning for those that don’t know. The brackets for the 318/360 motors are held in place by long bolts that go through the water pump, timing cover and thread into water jackets of the block. Those threads must be resealed to prevent leaks. None of the articles I read two years ago mentioned this. In my case, my pump showed signs of a leak that had sealed itself up (I had hard to remove rusty bolts). When I got my brackets back on and filled the system I couldn’t stop the pump from leaking out of a bolt hole. Which means I spent Thanksgiving week 2015 scraping 40 year old gasket out in the cold and rain so I could reseal my water pump. It was wonderful. So be prepared.

Anyway, one the power steering side. I removed the custom hoses and had them remade at a local belt and hose shop. I got the pump bracket worked over, it was missing a critical piece which I found, it needed two washers behind it for the proper spacing and I put a belt tensioner on from a P/S bracket off a 239 V6. I added an inline magnetic filter on the steering gears return line, not sure if those are any good but, it didn’t seem like a bad idea.

Pic 1 – Looking pretty good eh?
Pic 2 – I took a length of 3/8-16 rod and welded a nut to make a bolt so I could use a nut on the back of the alternator instead of trying to measure and cut a spacer.
Pic 3 - Alternator down low
Pic 4 – Reman hydroboost pump new custom hoses and inline filter
Pic 5 – The custom alt bracket painted
Pic 6 - Custom slider offset bent and mocked up, ready for welding. (Mr. Gasket Universal Alternator arm)
Pic 7 – Slide arm welded , Front
Pic 8 – Slide arm welded, Back
Pic 9 – Slide arm cut, Front
Pic 10 – Slide arm cut, Back
Pic 11 – Slide arm flapper disked and painted (Grinder and paint make me the welder I ain’t.)

I’ll add more pictures showing construction of the other brackets as building them are a nearly identical process just the measurement are different.

 

Alright these are some of the picture of the brackets being made and of the rejects.

Pic 1 - Made in cardboard first
Pic 2 - Heat and beat
Pic 3 - First bracket, Reject
Pic 4 - Trying to make reject work, gave up
Pic 5 - I used the original bracket to help index the alt bolt hole. It's not perfect still had a use a Dermel to wallow the hole a bit
Pic 6 - Place the alt in front of the original bracket...lined up perfect with other pulleys but, was really wobbly, bracket needs to be in front of alt. So this idea was scrapped.
Pic 7 - Another picture of alt hole indexed

 

Glad your getting things together, making brackets can be a pain in the butt.

 

I think you have done a wonderful job fabing and cleaning that all up...
Hat Tipped....

 

Thanks

I've still have a long way to go on this truck.. there is still so much wrong with it but, I knew what it was before I bought it.

So, far I've driven it 3 times to work (Grand total of 9.6 miles). It doesn't drive that well but, it didn't leave me on the side of the road either.

I plan on driving it into work tomorrow to get help with adjusting the timing.