The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Need some help....pulleys & balancer not jivin'

Hopefully this isn't as difficult as it feels, but here goes
The truck in question is a '72 Custom Deluxe 10, 350, auto, ps,ac. I've owned it for almost 2 years, driving it pretty much daily. The engine is original to the truck, verified by John Lucas. Sometime in the truck's past, it was converted to HEI, but the distributor was not put in right (#1 not in right position on distributor). The intake was leaking pretty good, so I thought it would be a good time to fix both things.

I will admit, I didn't take note of how the distributor came out only because it wasn't put in right to begin with. When I found TDC, I lined up the balancer on zero on the timing tab, set the distributor in place with one on the rotor pointing at the #1 cylinder. When I grabbed the timing light and tried to set the timing, the mark was nowhere to be found, kinda. John & I were pretty confused about this & just for fun, I shined the light from below and found the timing mark at about the 4-5 o-clock position. My first thought was to do some reading on line and the general thought was the outer ring slipped, causing the problem with timing.

I bought a replacement from O'reilly, pn PB1046N. I compared it to the one I took off abd the size was the same, but the mark was in a different location, about 2" away. Once I went to put the crank pulley on, the ps, wp and ac pulleys no longer line up. I tried spacing the crank pulley, but that corrected the ps alignment, but nothing else. Next, tried to space out the alternator bracket only to find it not right either. If you're still on board, thank you!!!

Confused and frustrated, I checked the number on the back of the old balancer, 6272222. I Googled this and not surprisingly found that it wasn't right for my truck, fits almost everything else. Need to note it has a short waterpump with a two groove pulley, the crank pulley is a 3 groove, single groove ps and ac. I believe the timing cover to be correct with the tab at about1-2 o'clock. Everything I've read says the short waterpump is right, but I question the pulleys. Should I do the right thing and keep the correct new balancer and find different pulleys or beg and plead to return it and make a new mark on the old balancer and use the pulleys that I know fit?

Once the balancer has been installed and run it can't be returned. Now it's a "used" part. Would you be willing to buy somebody else's mistake that's being sold as a "new" item by a parts store? Now it's time to make the rest of the pulley system match the balancer you have. There are two different timing mark positions for small block engines, depending on the year of manufacture. Early engines have the TDC mark at about the 2:00 position, looking at the front of the engine, and later ones have the TDC mark at 12:00. The balancer and the timing cover need to match up. Short shaft water pump engines almost always need the balancer and timing cover with the 2:00 timing mark.

There's a very well-established method of finding true top dead center by putting a fixture into the #1 spark plug hole and carefully turning the engine in both directions until the piston touches the stop fixture. TDC is midway between those positions.
Jerry

Thank you Jerry, you confirmed what I felt was right....I probably wouldn't have tried to return the balancer. I'm sure that I'm much better off with the right balancer and correct timing cover...just really frustrated and looking for a immediate fix....now to find the right pulleys...
Is the double groove wp & triple groove crankshaft setup correct?

It entirely depends on the rest of the accessories you choose to run. I'd suggest finding a similar setup and try to duplicate the belt arrangement. I have a 72 pickup stashed away in the bushes behind the barn, but it doesn't have A/C, and the front of the engine is dismantled down to the timing chain. Good luck!
Jerry

I would question the short water pump on a 350 with those accessories. It may be that the only thing that is correct is the new balancer.
Fred

Is there anything that would say definitely what should be there?