niiiiiice... were you able to use the same belts?

 

i cant wait to post pics of my setup... turbo without the tmic. the top of the motor will be showing. time for people to make sure thier housings and plates are clean.

 

Yesterday, I shipped Mark of Ashland, OH (MrSparkle?)
Today, I shipped Lloyd of Carnation, WA (Slammed_GSL)

Gregory of Springfield, VA was moved to the tensioner waiting list.

As for the tensioners, I have been assured they are on the way and are slated for delivery tomorrow morning. If that proves true, I will ship the rest of the paid orders tomorrow and request final payment of anyone not having already done so.

 

MrSparkle is in Loma Linda, CA

 

Alrighty...I was just guessing, as there was not a forum screen name on the order I sent out yesterday (Mark in Ashland, OH). Now that I look, your order (#13) has the screen name on it...I have you listed as Paid-in-Full but waiting on a tensioner, like so many others. Tensioners should be here tomorrow and, if so, I will get the paid orders out the door the same day.

 

Mark in Ashland, OH is Max7

 

how are you shipping? do i get a tracking number?

if usps this sucks. my mail man is lazy and dosent come knock on my door. if the package dosent fit in the box.. he takes it back to base. it took me 2 weeks after his first attempt on a filter i ordered to get him to bring it back out to me.

so do you have a tracking number for me?

 

Your mail man should leave it on the door, I don't think Blake is having a signature required on these, mine was left at my front door.

 

It was mailed USPS Priotrity Mail. No signature confirmation. The label number is 0103 8555 7493 5976 1581. You can go to the USPS web site to track it using that number, though I don't think it's very helpful except after the fact.

 

Paid in full. Thanks again.

 

I received mine today.
Shipping on Monday, arrived on my doorstep in Indiana on Thursday.

I can vouch; this is a really good quality part. It installed very easily, came to tension nice. I was a bit concerned that my Mazdaspeed pulleys would not work too well with this bracket. As you can see in the pics my main pulley is a lot smaller than all other aftermarket pulleys (I just cannot deal with having another flywheel on the front of my engine too) then my water pump pulley is much larger in diameter than stock... this would raise the over height of the belt as it rounds the pulley. My concern was that the belt would rub the distributor. It was so close.... Close enough that all I had to do was remove the front bolt (mounting the distributor plate to the dizzy itself) from the assembly.

For reference, I used a Top-Cog 15385 belt..... Again using the Mazdaspeed Pulleys.


Look at picture 3... This illustrates just how close this is. Whether it was designed for this pulley set-up or not this part demonstrates suburb design and construction.... More over the kit form with the tensioner yields the best "BOLT-on" zero mod part I have purchased for this car.... Kudos to Blake..... Mmmm Kudos....

My only criticism for the bracket is:

I noticed there is a slight amount of torsional movement when applying a moderate amount of force to the alternator. This could easily be corrected by adding a small gusseted piece welded between the vertical portion (that mounts to the engine) and the horizontal portion bend out from there...

However, I understand that this part was made to be both lightweight and functional... and I would suspect that, this slight amount of torsional movement would actually absorb a shock of load.... due to something like revving the engine quickly... you would have the combination of rotational and centrifugal forces from the belt.

 

The rod ends arrived today, just as promised (suprise!), so I shipped the remaining paid-in-full orders, including:

Milton in Benton, AR
Thomas in Loma Linda, CA (mrsparkle)
Gufran in Ontario, Canada
Oscar in Nassjo, Sweden

The only remaining unpaid/unshipped orders are:

Gregory in Springfield, VA (hadagsl-se)
Kenneth in Norwalk, CT
James in Roebuck, SC
Christopher in Nacogdoches, TX

These people have until August 4th (two weeks from today) to pay, before they are written off and "their" brackets sold to someone else.

There are no more brackets available for the Group Buy, as there are no more brackets period. I was supposed to have a few left over, but they seem to have dissappeared out of the shop. Anyway, I will go ahead an get another batch made up and then start selling them retail through Pineapple Racing. The price may go up more than I had previously estimated because of how big of a PITA these are to make and my unwillingness to contuinue making some of the parts myself just to save a buck or two. The price of the heim-jointed tensioners will DEFINITELY go up, because they take so long for me to make, but then I will probably go ahead and make some flat-bar tensioners that will be a lower-cost option.

 

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, that aftermarket pulley combo makes the belt path tight for the distributor. Good to know it clears, though. One thing that might help is a slightly longer belt, as the alternator could tip farther and, thus, bring the pulley centerline down with it.

As for the flexibility, there are two factors, neither relating to the stiffness of the bracket itself. First, the lower alternator bolt needs to be really snugged down at least once to move the steel insert so that the alternator fits the lower boss perfectly. I made the clearance a bit loose to allow for the powdercoating but also knowing that the insert will automatically adjust and that it's far easier to adjust it in (tighten the bolt) than out (hammer, plyers, etc). Still, we're talking very minute amounts, but not doing it will leave some minor play. The second factor in the flexibility is the type of tensioner. The stock flat-bar tensioner adds a suprising amount of rigidity, while the rod-end (aka Heim-jointed) tensioner does not bind at all. The added flexibility is really not an issue and does, as you said, absorb some vibration. I have over 1,000 street miles on my production test unit and have had no problems. In the future, I will offer both types and let the buyer pick their poison.

 

got mine in today. They look Great.

One thing I might change is the Alan Head bolts for the Tensioner, I would perfer to keep every thing a Metric 12 or 14 just so I dont have to keep more tools in the car. But it may not be necessary if this cures the once a month belt replacement.


Thanks for the great product and the Quick shipment.

MN

 

Actually, they are metric...6mm. I almost went to Harbor Freight to pick up a bunch of cheap 6mm allen wrenches to toss in with the kit, but I never got the chance. I love internal wrenching fasteners, like socket head cap screws. If I could find them in a fine-thread pitch, I would have used button heads for the bracket-to-engine bolts.

 

they "tried to deliver it" im gonna have to go pic it up from the post office.. fun...

 

Just wondering...

If you found a long enough belt...could you run a dual alt setup?

I have no reason too...just wondering

James

 

No, the belt would be absurdly long and probably interfere with the distributor. But, it had already occured to me that it would be a simple thing to move the bolt holes on the bracket to make it line up with the second sheave on the main and WP pulleys, so someone can run dual alternators (stock-mount on the first sheave, the additional alternator on the relocation bracket on the second sheave). If there is any demand for a dual alternator setup, I would be happy to make some...it would be so simple to move the holes in the CAD software. I just find it hard to believe there is much of a market, considering the people who might like a second alternator are the same people who would probably not want to give up other luxuries, like PS and AC. Am I wrong to think this?

 

well for the price of the brackets you could get a fd alt. I do have needs for more power... but the whole reason i got this was to open up the top of the motor.

but if someone had a dual pulley on the lower alt and ran one belt on it... then ran another alt up top and had one belt in the other "dual pulley" groove then i dont see why it wouldnt work.

 

Sorry Ive had my head in the clouds and forgot to check up on this after the put in the deposit.

Sent the remaining $55 today.

-Greg in Springfield, VA

 

I would interested in one of the dual brackets.

 

I recieved my bracket today!
Looks really nice. I will install it today
with my FD alt post some pics of it installed.

Thanks again Blake!

 

Wow, that was quick shipping to Sweden! Glad you like it.

 

I´ve installed it now, but I have one question!
The lower boss on the bracket is only 55mm long and the space between the
"ears" on the alternator is 65mm. There is a play of 10mm there now!
Have I missed something?

 

im still fighting with the usps to get my damn bracket. im so mad at usps. then never bring my stuff.

i hate em... they stank