Mount for Saginaw PS pump

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boxgranch

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 6, 2021
Messages
115
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Location
Near Tampa, FL, 33511
My Car
1972 Base Convertible 302
As we near stuffing the engine back in, I got the new Saginaw PS pump mounted and don't really like the way it is mounted, particularly now that we have aluminum heads. Photo attached. The bracket and pump are from Borgeson along with the steering box. I realize that some here prefer other solutions, but when we started buying stuff for the rebuild, all we knew about was Borgeson and a shop we deal with had a favorable opinion on them despite the fact we had already gotten it elsewhere. At any rate, their bracket secures to the head with two 3/8-16 bolts and is spaced a bit more than 1.5" from the head by the time I lined up the v-belt grooves. There is a third hole and I was thinking of using threaded rod to add some support, but it seems as if the belt will have a lot of leverage to work with pulling this apart. I looked around and spotted this:

https://chapperformance.com/product...ering-bracket-using-saginaw-ps-pump-v-belt-2/
which looks like a stronger solution that would put little stress on those holes in the front of heads.

Opinions on if I am being too paranoid about weakness and we should just motor on or if I really need something more robust would be appreciated. If we were sticking with the cast iron heads, I don't think I would be as concerned, although the OEM pump was mounted in a far more rugged manner. The car will be my son's daily driver and I hope he will get to drive it some before going to basic training this summer. It would look bad if dad engineering led to the PS pump flailing about in the engine compartment.

As always, thanks. This forum has been a real blessing. Everyone tries to help and no one snarks. Hopefully, one of these days, I will be able to help back.


Borgeson PS mount.jpg
 
Thanks for the reply! After I posted this, I was pondering adding a bracket as well. I was thinking of having a piece welded to the Borgeson mount which would, of course, ruin the nice finish. Is yours on an aluminum or cast iron head?

I also wondered about trying to adapt the mount Ford has for its PS pump to the Saginaw, but I have it in storage and need to pull it out to see. I suspect it won't work, of course.

With it mounted the way it is, you can see it flex when you put pressure on the belt. I will try the threaded rod today through the third hole and see it that helps much with the flex.

A long term concern is when we add A/C to the car and trying to mount the compressor. More and more, I wish we had bought a crate engine that already had everything mounted. A bit more money than we are going to wind up with, but fewer headaches. Oh well, the horse has left barn!
 
I have the iron 4V heads. The way i did it is reusing the factory bracket for the Ford pump. I clocked the Saginaw pump to align it along two holes in the bracket and added the third support on the rear. Your pump should have a bolt on the rear for a bracket. However, i should clarify that i have a Saginaw pump but not the Borgerson one. I think all of them have that bolt on the rear though.
I also have A/C and no issues with the brackets. I have a thread or post with all the details. I dont have the link right now but should be able to find it by searching the site.
 
I made up a support piece with some 1.25x.25 flat steel and came up with this. It greatly reduced the deflection with a tensioned belt. The extra washers were to keep from bottoming the bolts in the head. The spacers that came with the Borgeson mount did not line the pulleys up, so I had to get different ones. I had to use the alternate mounting hole so the pump would clear the extension to allow a sensor for an oil pressure gauge while retaining the idiot light sensor. That, unfortunately, limits the tension adjustment on the belt.

I am still not thrilled to have this bolted to aluminum, something I had not thought of until we started putting things together. I will probably pursue one of the other mounts later when we add the A/C in some eon after the budget comes back into line. I hate to buy something now and then discover it won't work with an A/C compressor. Probably best to try to do all that in one go.
 

Attachments

  • Borgeson PS Pump bracket with brace.jpg
    Borgeson PS Pump bracket with brace.jpg
    5.7 MB · Views: 16
I have the iron 4V heads. The way i did it is reusing the factory bracket for the Ford pump. I clocked the Saginaw pump to align it along two holes in the bracket and added the third support on the rear. Your pump should have a bolt on the rear for a bracket. However, i should clarify that i have a Saginaw pump but not the Borgerson one. I think all of them have that bolt on the rear though.
I also have A/C and no issues with the brackets. I have a thread or post with all the details. I dont have the link right now but should be able to find it by searching the site.

Thanks! I was thinking of trying to reuse the Ford mount and probably should give that a whirl, but I think what I just posted will be OK. The car has been off the road for 6 months and my son is really eager to drive it again, especially with the rebuilt engine and T5. We started to try to get the engine and transmission back in, but have to do it outside and ran out of time before rain threatened. I had the engine hung on the lift differently than when we pulled it out and we ran out of reach on the arm. Argh. If the weather is OK tomorrow, we will rehang it try again.
 
As we near stuffing the engine back in, I got the new Saginaw PS pump mounted and don't really like the way it is mounted, particularly now that we have aluminum heads. Photo attached. The bracket and pump are from Borgeson along with the steering box. I realize that some here prefer other solutions, but when we started buying stuff for the rebuild, all we knew about was Borgeson and a shop we deal with had a favorable opinion on them despite the fact we had already gotten it elsewhere. At any rate, their bracket secures to the head with two 3/8-16 bolts and is spaced a bit more than 1.5" from the head by the time I lined up the v-belt grooves. There is a third hole and I was thinking of using threaded rod to add some support, but it seems as if the belt will have a lot of leverage to work with pulling this apart. I looked around and spotted this:

https://chapperformance.com/product...ering-bracket-using-saginaw-ps-pump-v-belt-2/
which looks like a stronger solution that would put little stress on those holes in the front of heads.

Opinions on if I am being too paranoid about weakness and we should just motor on or if I really need something more robust would be appreciated. If we were sticking with the cast iron heads, I don't think I would be as concerned, although the OEM pump was mounted in a far more rugged manner. The car will be my son's daily driver and I hope he will get to drive it some before going to basic training this summer. It would look bad if dad engineering led to the PS pump flailing about in the engine compartment.

As always, thanks. This forum has been a real blessing. Everyone tries to help and no one snarks. Hopefully, one of these days, I will be able to help back.


View attachment 61869
I used a factory 302 bracket and extended it slightly to fit in original location.
 

Attachments

  • 351-6.JPG
    351-6.JPG
    2.5 MB · Views: 25
Although I have a 351 Cleveland on a 1970 Mach 1 with a Saginaw Pump, an aftermarket Sanden A/C Compressor, the solution is similar. Along with the Aftermarket P/S and A/C, I have stock over the compressor P/S cooler and the crank and water pump V-belt pulleys and Alternator are stock. I searched high and low for brackets that would mount the P/S pump and A/C in the same stock position as Ford did. There was nothing out there that was a complete package solution... for me anyway. I ended up making my own from a combination of the stock york compressor bracket and tensioner pulley, a modified stock water pump to P/S pump bracket, an aftermarket York to Sanden A/C adapter (made by Classic Air), a couple of aftermarket Saginaw pump brackets, and a bracket I made to mount the P/S cooler over the Sanden compressor, and finally, I cut my own spacers from round stainless stock.

I went with two brackets on my pump. one on the front and the other on the back. I was worried about strength and flexing when using just one bracket. It was critical for me to be certain that the alignment was dead-on, for my own peace of mind. I spent a lot of time measuring and adjusting. I used a 2ft by 1/2 inch piece of box metal that I knew was straight and would not flex to check my alignment from one pulley to another. I adjusted the pump forward to back with the spacers to ensure it was aligned with the crank and water pump pulleys AND just as important, that the P/S pump pulley was square (not on an angle) with the rest of the system. Here is the end result. After a few months of driving the car, I have had no issues with belt damage (fraying on the edges), squealing, etc.
 

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    20210522_071846.jpg
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  • 20210522_064534.jpg
    20210522_064534.jpg
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  • Cleveland Aftermarket brackets.jpg
    Cleveland Aftermarket brackets.jpg
    1.2 MB · Views: 33
  • 1970 - 73 Ford 351C 351 Cleveland AC-Alternator- Crank- Water Pump Brackets & Pulleys Mustang ...jpg
    1970 - 73 Ford 351C 351 Cleveland AC-Alternator- Crank- Water Pump Brackets & Pulleys Mustang ...jpg
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Rackerm, wow, nicely done. I am going to save the pix for future reference. Having the pump flex out to an angle when the belt was tensioned bothered me, both for belt life and putting a lot of torque on the bolts into the Edelbrock heads was alarming. I really didn't have much tension, either. I had fits getting the pulleys aligned and probably mounted and dismounted the 20 times before I got it right. They might have lined up with the Borgeson spacers the stock heads, but it didn't with the ones now on the engine. I keep hoping for simplicity .....
 
I have the iron 4V heads. The way i did it is reusing the factory bracket for the Ford pump. I clocked the Saginaw pump to align it along two holes in the bracket and added the third support on the rear. Your pump should have a bolt on the rear for a bracket. However, i should clarify that i have a Saginaw pump but not the Borgerson one. I think all of them have that bolt on the rear though.
I also have A/C and no issues with the brackets. I have a thread or post with all the details. I dont have the link right now but should be able to find it by searching the site.
you have any pics? just installed saginaw p pump from cvf racing. want to reinstall factory ac down the road but cannot do it with there bracket setup
 
Rackerm, wow, nicely done. I am going to save the pix for future reference. Having the pump flex out to an angle when the belt was tensioned bothered me, both for belt life and putting a lot of torque on the bolts into the Edelbrock heads was alarming. I really didn't have much tension, either. I had fits getting the pulleys aligned and probably mounted and dismounted the 20 times before I got it right. They might have lined up with the Borgeson spacers the stock heads, but it didn't with the ones now on the engine. I keep hoping for simplicity .....
I lost count how many times I bolted and unbolted the accessory pulleys and belts until I felt the spacers were at the correct lenght. Don't hesitate to reach out. Happy to help if I can.
 
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