Eyeache, My Ear

All the superfluous cutting and grinding I've been doing has gifted me with an incredible amount of steel and aluminum shavings, dust, chunks, and whatsis.

As of four days ago or so, some of that material assumed an uninvited residence in my left eye.  I managed to get it out after two days of very slight discomfort, punctuated by sudden, unexpected, half-blinding pain.  That very day, its replacement showed up.  We've been negotiating its departure since then, but the metal is really good at being evasive. 

Not really important information to share, but I think it does a fair representation of my journey to solve this problem that really wasn't that big of a deal to begin with.

To clarify, here's basically what was needed to get that power steering pump mounted:

Cut this rear bracket, like so.

Done.  Seriously.  That's all that you need to do.  None of the other stuff I've been talking about the past few days is needed.  Just make a wavy cut, and if you don't like bleeding unexpectedly, deburr it.  Done.

Here's a shot of it fastened to the block:

I intend to buckle that top bolt hole to the intake manifold boss directly above it, but I don't have any steel stock that's the right gauge to put between them.  1/8" is way too thick, though a late 258/242 rocker bridge looks to be the perfect thickness.  I'll probably make it from one of those.

There are a couple caveats to the one-step solution.  First is that this cut is the only modification needed for the PS pump brackets.  I had to grind the crap out of the idler pulley bracket, and it's really not worth showing.  All I can offer is that getting it to fit is going to be a "chew on it until you won't choke" situation.

Another point to bear in mind is that I eventually gave up and decided to take a lazy route regarding how much adjustment I can make to lessen belt tension by pivoting the pump.  By leaving all the other parts stock, replacement of the belt will require pulling the fan and it's pulley after I take tension off the belt as much as possible through the normal means. 

See, without further modification of the front plate and rear bracket, the pump doesn't have enough potential travel to loosen the belt so that it can be removed without stretching (the aluminum "sling", or adjuster bracket, or whatever the hell it should be called butts into the exhaust manifold if you try to pivot the pump and slacken the belt).  It does, however, travel enough to give room for the belt to be slipped on or off with the fan pulley.

Since I don't plan on constantly changing belts, I figured that this minor inconvenience was a fair compromise to make so that I didn't spend another several days trying to pretend I'm capable of finding solutions to simple geometry problems while stuffing more metal in my eye.