<VV> Do you have one 4 sale?

[Tony Underwood]

At 05:29 hours 09/19/2006, Frank DuVal wrote:
>I thought all FC's had the '60 style rubber washer mount for the 
>rear of the engine. Did this change in '64?

No.   It was the mount bracket that was different... same as a '64 
car, with the indention to clear the balancer.


>And, if you add A/C to a '61 to '63 car you seek out the '64 
>bracket, so the holes should be in the same place. This is why the 
>'64 bracket is sought after. The '64 bracket has the deep dish to 
>clear the harmonic balancer. The sheet metal cover over this bracket 
>and the other straps back there are also '64 only.
>
>Of course I have seen two late brackets with a center hole drilled 
>between the existing two holes. Late engine installed in early 
>model. It looks weak and there is no slot for rear toe adjustment!

A serious individual could simply weld up the holes on a late 
bracket, then redrill/slot the single hole ala early bracket.    No biggie.


However:

You CAN use an earlier bracket with a balancer, simply by shimming 
the bracket with some washers to space it out enough to allow the fan 
belt to slip past the balancer.   The 60-63 bracket WILL fit with a 
balancer in place of the steel pulley, but the clearance is just a 
little too tight to allow installation of a fan belt unless it's a 
very narrow one and you don't mind wrestling with it to force it past 
the balancer/ bracket by poking it with a big screwdriver, which is 
unacceptable.    Shim it, no problems, done it a number of times, 
including to my '60 4-door which has a balancer, having already used 
up my remaining supply of '64 brackets on other earlies.


Remember that the brackets have slotted holes to allow the early 
driveline to move forward and backward for rear toe adjustment via 
shimming the transmission between the front mount bracket... there's 
enough room to space/shim the earlier bracket to allow a balancer to 
fit if the issue is to get the car roadworthy until the '64 bracket 
can be turned up so as to satisfy the purist.   Me, I just left the 
'60 bracket in place and shimmed it to allow fan belt replacement and 
went on down the road and never worried about it, and all is well.


tony..