Our eldest son recently purchased a '24 T-Bucket with a 401 Nailhead engine. It has a mock (fake) supercharger. The thing I do not know about it how to tension the belts. The only belt that has a tensioner is the alternator. I would appreciate any information. I have attached a couple of photos.
New to the Forum from Central Texas
- Thread starter JSB
- Start date
Welcome to our family! That's a cool setup. I don't recall ever seeing one just like it. I can't see any way to "tension the belts" either. Maybe someone who has seen a similar setup can chime in. Multiple belt configurations like that are very 'old school.' Most current blower drives use a wide toothed belt. I'm guessing the original seller is unavailable for information, right?
Blownfuel
Member
That is one weird setup! I remember seeing drives like that back in the late 50's / early 60's, but I doubt anyone is still manufacturing them? I cant quite tell from the angle of the photo's, are the belts being driven off the water pump pulley, or the crankshaft pulley? Since the blower is "fake" (I assume you mean it doesn't have any rotors in it?), this setup should be fine because it shouldn't take that much Hp to turn the gears in the blower drive. Since there isn't a tensioner, I think you will probably have to change the belts to tighten them up. I'm guessing they have stretched a little with use. You could use a screwdriver, long extension, etc., and bump the engine over to pop the first one off, then take it to your local auto parts store to measure / compare with a new one of that same size and see how close they are. If it doesn't appear to be stretched, you might have to go down one size of belt. As far as replacing all of them at once, I can think of two ways to accomplish that. The easier way would be to remove the 8 blower to intake bolts and lift the rear of the blower to loosen the belts. Remove and replace the belts, then lower it back down and tighten the bolts to tension the belts. you could also try grinding the head off a couple of shouldered bolts that fit the upper pulley to make alignment pins (make these long enough to stick out of the pulley an inch or so you can get them off with the pulley and the other four bolts installed). Then slide the upper pulley off to R&R the belts, slide it back on over the two alignment pins, replace the other four bolts and then swap out the pins for the last two. Depending on how much tension your putting the belts under, this may be impossible to do, so I'd probably try the 1st method since you can use the bloweras a lever to apply the tension. I would also have an extra blower base gasket handy, just in case it gets damaged ( assuming the fake blower is being used as a plenum, not has another carb hidden inside it.
Pasthisprime
Member
No one has said this but if that isn’t a real blower and is just a big cavity it must have very poor fuel atomization and distribution. I remember seeing those in the early eighties. If it were mine I would get rid of it, get a good front drive setup, intake manifold and carb. Can the OP share what it is like to drive? Removing the carb and looking into blower case would be very informative
Hey, JSB . . . I hope you understand we are not being critical of your son's hotrod, just trying to explore what you have and maybe offer useful suggestions. How did this thing run when your son test drove it? Buick nailheads provide a lot of torque and should propel that little T-bucket rather well.
Martin72
Member
The set-up I remember seeing back in the late 60's early 70s was built by an old racer in my hometown that used the blower case and the multi-belt pulleys he had laying around after he retired. He hogged out the inside of the blower to be able to fit over a stock intake and carburetor. Since it was installed in a car with a hood, all you could see was the blower and belts sticking out of the hood. He kept the gears in the front of the case to give it a bit of a "blower whine". If I remember correctly, the carburetor linkage went thru the back of the blower case (couldn't see when the hood was closed. I don't remember ever seeing him have cooling problems, overheating, etc., but then again, he only drove it around town to and from his house to the "malt shop" all the high school kids hung out at after school and on the weekends. Can you post a few more pictures of the blower case, the back, carburetor linkage, etc.?
Also, from what I can see, it looks like the water pump pully may have 6 belt groves with a belt in the rearmost grove. If so, there is probably a belt that runs from the crank to the 6th (rear) grove in the water pump pully like we did back in the early 70's to drive the water pump without running an alternator. I put a 350 in a '71 Vega, ran one belt from crank pulley to water pump pully, and a 2nd belt from bottom pulley, to water pump, to alternator. The crank to water pump belt was there just in case a 7,000 rpm blast would throw the alternator belt, the water pump would still be turning.
If your setup is similar, all you need to do is measure the belt and just roll in on. Same with the 5 belts that go around the bottom crank pully and the blower pulley.
Please post more pictures....and let me know if I'm waaayyy off base here with this rambling story.
Also, from what I can see, it looks like the water pump pully may have 6 belt groves with a belt in the rearmost grove. If so, there is probably a belt that runs from the crank to the 6th (rear) grove in the water pump pully like we did back in the early 70's to drive the water pump without running an alternator. I put a 350 in a '71 Vega, ran one belt from crank pulley to water pump pully, and a 2nd belt from bottom pulley, to water pump, to alternator. The crank to water pump belt was there just in case a 7,000 rpm blast would throw the alternator belt, the water pump would still be turning.
If your setup is similar, all you need to do is measure the belt and just roll in on. Same with the 5 belts that go around the bottom crank pully and the blower pulley.
Please post more pictures....and let me know if I'm waaayyy off base here with this rambling story.
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