Blake

Yes, you can. No reason to keep it.

Blake

Dual pulley would work fine, though I'm not a big fan of them (impossible to equally tension). I agree that cadmium finishes are cool, but the prep can be significant ($). We'll see. When I get some prices better nailed down and more feedback on the value of various choices, I will decide what to move forward with. Hopefully, I can get these things ready to sell by the 1st of July.

Hades12

The site went down several months ago. They did not sale these, That one was just for their Drag car.

d0 Luck

alright another question.

how many miles have you logged on using this bracket without having belt slippage or failure? thanks blake

Blake

None. It's a prototype. I just finished fabricating the thing like yesterday! I've done several other prototypes for fitting purposes, but this will be the first one tested. But, it's not rocket science! If the alignment is right and the material rigid enough (it is), there will be no suprises. My only concern at this point is whether the long run from the top of the WP pulley to the top of the alt pulley will cause a harmonic in the belt that may cause it to rub the bottom nut on the distributor. It shouldn't, but I will do the testing to make sure. We aren't going to sell a product that is likely to cause problems.

bkm_rx7

this is a really great idea!!!

too bad i will prolly just "steal" your idea and make one myself cuz i cant afford to buy one...

Blake

It's not a new idea, by any stretch of the imagination, so I'm not overly concerned with copycats. I'm banking that the investment in doing multiple units at a super-high quality level will make people realize that it's just not worth copying. Certainly, they could save a few bucks, but the product won't be nearly as nice. The only problem I would have with a copycat is if they litterally took all the measurements and design features off my product and then turned around and sold their own rip-off version. Here, look at the progression of prototypes to get to this one:



Each one was an experiment in positioning the alternator and using the material most efficiently. The first one was cheap because I was cutting the material on my horizontal bandsaw and drilling the holes myself. The later ones, I farmed the shearing and hole punching out to a local fab shop, then welded on the additional bits. Cost: $40 each, plus materials. And the final prototype is lasered out, as the production pieces will be. Just the setup cost was $40, let alone materials and unit cost of the lasering. All of this time and expense must be accounted for in the price of the final product, but the investment should be well worth it. Hopefully, people will appreciate the effort it takes to develop a good product and not shy away because of the price tag of $50 to $85.

bkm_rx7

haha...progress is coming along well!

ill tell ya what...when i get a running rx7 and a job...ill most likely drop the $50-$85 for a great looking and good functioning product such as urs

keep us all posted on your testing...im curious as to if you run into any intriguing problems...ALSO...line up a pic of your water pump that was aformentioned....

d0 Luck

Hyper4mance2k

iTrader: (40)

I want one of the prototypes!!! i love stuff noone else has, even if its not the compleate version. Come ooonnnn Let me be the test subject! Come on blake you posted the pics of my lower links!!! lol

H4Inf

Mmmm im definitely interested in one, I have trouble with my alternator where the positive-output is jammed up so close against my intake. Would make things much easier to work on.

Hopefully you can ship to Australia :-)

Cheers,

Paul.

Pele

iTrader: (28)

You said you can put it in the P/S location, I believe... Can you picture it there on a car that has stock A/C? Just in case I wanna keep the A/C... Although I doubt I will.

Blake

I'm not currently doing anything that would accomodate Power Steering or AC. Perhaps someday, but not now....

Blake

Your lower links? You mean the ones I made, used for a couple years and then sold to you?

Blake

New pictures. This is on my Rotary Truck project.

Hades12

That is Dead Sexy.

rbf41182gt

so does it work with the water cooled oil cooler? i heard in the beginning of the thread that there might be some fitment problems. I got a 79, but it's converted to the behive oil cooler because the front mounted one was totally shot.

if it does fit though, count me it!

Blake

No, it doesn't quite fit that hard oil line which wraps around the lower front cover stud. However, it wouldn't be too hard to get the clearance with a die grinder. I happen to have an 83 RX-7 with the "beehive" air/water oil cooler, and plan to grind up one of the prototypes to fit...then, when the next batch is sent in to be cut, I can have it fit all the setups. I would do it for this batch, except that I already had 25 brackets cut. If they sell well (as I'm getting the impression they will), the next batch my happen sooner rather than later.

Blake

Okay, I spent some time at the fabrication shop, protoyping a rod end turnbuckle assembly. I already ordered the rod ends from my supplier, but I was impatient for them to arrive, so I just bought one set locally. Expen$ive! Each rod end was $10, and the left-hand tap was another $20 (I alreday had a 5/16 right-hand tap, but not the left-). Anyway, the production assembly I sell will only be about $15, so that's less than just the rod ends alone, if you were to try to duplicate the setup! I am strongly leaning towards not offering a flat bar tensioner, as the cost difference will be minimal. For those on a real budget, I might just let you buy the alternator bracket with no tensioner and you can do what I did for the prototype: pound the stock tensioner flat (it has a 'jog' in it), cut to length and drill a new hole. Let me know what you think of that option.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the prototype rod end turnbuckle tensioner:

Blake

Oh, in case it's not entirely clear, the mechanism of the turnbuckle is that each end is threadded the opposite way, so when you rotate the center of the unit one way both rod ends extend, and the other way they both retract. That way, you don't have to un-bolt anything when fine tuning the belt tension. Hope that makes sense.

shadowlife25

Hey Blake, am I the only one on here that can't see any of y9our pics? I can see the pic of that evil7 thing, but not a single one of yours and I am very interested in getting one of your setups. if you could please e-mail them to me at: shadowlife25@sbcglobal.com that would be highly appreciated. Thanks Blake.

Blake

As far as I know, yes. I emailed you the pictures, so let me know if they came through okay.

Hades12

The turnbuckel looks real good.


If you only offered the setup with it. I would still get one or two.

sgieldon

I'm In Of Course!
PM me when you will have these done w/ Turnbuckle SetUp.

84GSL w/Air to Oil Cooler under Rad.
Thanks
Steve
sgieldon

Bass

Your prototype rod end turnbuckle tensioner looks like it would be a good candidate for a potential replacement for the rods on the headlight assemblies too.