Alternator bracket

[69jeepcj]

I am having problems breaking my alternator bracket in half. The motor is a 65 chevy 327, double hump heads with no acessory holes, roughly 350hp and around 412ft tq, every time I floor the pedel and run through the gears from 2nd to 4th hard it snaps the alternator bracket in half. I have welded or replaced the bracket several times and would like to get this fixed. I have a Mr. Gasket bracket with the long arm that go,s from the water pump to the drivers high side of the motor, then another bracket under the alternator that is attached to the motor with the header bolts. The header bolt bracket is the one I keep breaking in half. I have looked at the pulleys and they all line up, I have watched the pulleys with the motor running and they look fine. My thought is that when I mash the pedel, the torque is pulling on the adjuster bracket coming from the water pump and snaping the lower bracket. I have thought of making a lower support arm/brace to maybe help keep it in place, but not sure this will help. What do you guys and gals think? Thanks

 

[PoliceMonkey161]

Hey Man,

Sorry, I meant to reply yesterday, but got side tracked. Can you post a photo of the bracket? I have an idea, but I could be way off.

 

[69jeepcj]

This is a older pic. I some how mess up my computer and cant take pics any more, computer cant even find my camera. You cant see the bracket that is under the alternator in the photo, but I will post pics of what they look like. Hope it helps.
This is the one I am breaking, It slips over the header tube and uses the two forward header bolts, I am breaking the tab off of the mount at the second header bolt.

Compare

Heres a decent pic, I think that long adjuster arm is putting too much torque on the bracket and snapping it.

 

[PoliceMonkey161]

I can’t really tell by the photo, but is your alternator extended out to the furthest part of the top bracket? If so, would it be possible to move (swing) it closer to the bock, maybe using a shorter belt? My idea (although over engineered) would involve shortening the distance from the block and adding an idler arm somewhere in that loop. A spring loaded arm would be best, but you would probably need to fab one.

Just a thought Bro…….

 

[PoliceMonkey161]

Something else maybe....... Is there anyway that your alt. is hitting something (like the fender well) during exterme torque?

 

[69jeepcj]

I dont think its hitting anything, its about 3" from the fender. I think I will look into shortening the adjuster arm as you mentioned. Il let ya know what I come up with, but it wont be today because I have to work. I have seen photos of where people flipped the adjuster arm upside down and put the alternator towards the bottom of the motor so I will look into that as well. Thanks for the sugestions.