Need to swap to narrow belt pulleys on my 261

I have a '54 261 Chevy six and I'd like to swap to 3/8" belt pulleys so I can add A/C. Will the 235 pulleys work? What years had the narrow ones? I believe I have a short water pump.

 

Cant you still just run the thinner belt and just have it run deeper in the groove.

 

Maybe???? Seems to me that it might be asking for trouble though. Anybody done this?

 

If the belt does not bottom out in the pulley I think you will be OK.

 

is there room to add another, small groove, pulley in front of the crank pulley? then just run the ac off of that.

 

Don't try the small belts in the B size pulley. It will smoke them. Belts grab on the sides, not the bottom. I tried this with an alternator and ended up having to buy a pulley for the alternator at an aftermarket store. Just my $.02

 

I think you can get compressor clutches with wide belt pulleys. Check with some of the major vendors.....Vintage Air, Southern Air, Hor Rod Air, etc.

 

I'm buying everything from Vintage Air. I'll see what they say about the wide belt pulley for the compressor. Their bracket runs the alternator off of the compressor so it needs to be a double pulley too.

 

So getting back to my original question. Has anyone swapped out wide pulleys from a 261 for narrow ones from a 235?

 

You don't mention what water pump your using (long or short) but any car water pump pulley after 54 should work with short pump. I'm not sure about pulley for long nose pump. As for balancer pulley same 54 and later should work. I've heard 261 balancers are larger diameter than 235, but haven't confirmed. Hope that helps.

 

Thanks. I believe I have a short pump. Can you tell in the picture I posted above? Next is to find the parts. No old yards left around here any more.

 

The '55-'62 water pumps have a totally different mounting than the pre-'55 pumps. A pump from a '53-'54 passenger car will work on a '54 261 and give you a narrow pulley.

 

A short pump would not be needed on a 54 261,a 54 car 235 water pump and balancer for the thinner belt should go right on.

 

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like I need to find a pump pulley and balancer from a '54 235.

 

The water pumps on the 1954 235's & 261's were the same as the 1937-1953
216 pumps.

You can get an earlier '37-'53 pump with a narrow pulley easily from most of the big parts sellers.....


http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/d...=Search_01398_1326552_3236&pt=01398&ppt=C0331







.

 

Thanks for the link. I didn't know that new pumps would come with the pulley attached. That makes it easy. Now all I need to find is the crank damper and narrow pulley.

 

The '37-'40 water pump is different from the '41-'54 pump.

 

Other then the angle where the hose attaches and width of belt are there any other differences in the 37 to 40 water pump to the 41-54 pumps.