R2 AC and hood clearance

[Billy Shears]

I have had a Nimesh Solanki R2 put in my Avanti R1, and upon his advice, wanting to retain my A/C for the hot Virginia summers, obtained a bracket from Rogers Protofab in Canada designed to permit a GM compressor to mount next to the alternator. I have two problems with this installation, and I am wondering if anyone else here has ever run into them. The engine is still a Studebaker V8 with the same external dimensions as my old engine, and the Rogers part is one he has made for several other Avanti owners, and this is no the first engine Nimesh has built, so I am wondering why the hell I am having these problems. The first is my hood won't close, and the second is none of the pulleys line up. I could understand why the alternator and compressor might not line up; the Rogers bracket is a non-standard part, and they might have departed from their usual specs. But the crank pulley and water pump and supercharger, which were all installed by Nimesh, aren't lining up either. I don't know about the power steering pulley, because it's not back on yet.

And even if I get the pulleys lined up, why does it look like I'm going to have to shim the body up in order to get my hood to close when nobody else doing this AC install has apparently had to do it? Anyone here got any experience with this? I'd appreciate any suggestions.

[1963r2]

Billy

Do you have a 2 or 3 groove water pump pulley. If you have added a supercharger then you need a 3 groove.I had a similar problem with the line up of the belts until I realised I had a 2 groove (R1) pulley on the waterpump instead of the 3 groove (R2).

If the supercharger bracket is the standard type for the Stude motor then the alternator should line but the compressor might not. Interms of hood clearance I guess the if the compressor is lower then the alternator then it should close. Maybe the bracket is for a Hawk/Lark application and sent in error. I guess you could double check.

Could you post a photo of the installation?

Pb