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Whats up guys, a couple weeks ago I picked up a 1980 Lesabre with the 350. Nice car, interior is perfect. Damn thing squeals like a stuck pig though. I've determined this is because the previous owner took off the AC compressor and threw it away, so now there are two pullies on the driver's side and none on the passenger side. I was just wondering if there's an AC delete kit that fits the olds engine? I see a bunch online for chevy engines, not sure if they'll fit though. I could care less about the AC.. it'd be nice to get it working again, but i dont even know what all the previous guy took out. I'd like to just get rid of the squeal for now. I've replaced the belts, got them all nice and tight. I'm pretty sure its the missing pulley that's causing the squeal.
That is the funkiest belt setup I have ever seen. Your alternator is mounted so far forward that it is being driven off the water pump alone not the crank pulley. The crank is driving the water pump and power steering pump and the alt is then powered off the water pump. That is putting an extreme side load on your water pump. I have never seen that before. The pulley groove that runs the alternator is even larger than the other two. Is that factory?
Back in the day I worked installing aftermarket A/C in vehicles in Phoenix and we had what we affectionately called add-a-pulleys to power the new A/C system. You may be missing a crank add-a-pulley that would give you a third v-groove so the alternator can be powered off the crank. You would need to find a three-groove pulley that is all the same size to do that and it would lower the side load on the water pump, but not by much.
As far as I know everything is 100% stock. 75,000 original miles, I'm the fourth owner. Last guy only had it a few months, the guy before that took care of it good, and he bought it from the original owner. The guy I got it from is one of those backyard mechanics who thinks he knows everything about cars and didnt really take care of it. He took the AC off because he thought it would make it faster and threw it out. I've been doing some research, I've found that on earlier non AC cars they had a pass side mounted alt. I'm thinking about picking up one of those brackets and swapping sides.
I guess you haven't seen many 1977-up Olds motors.
That's stock and essentially the same as used on the 1980s 307 motors. The squeal is pretty much always due to not tensioning the PS pump belt correctly.
I guess you haven't seen many 1977-up Olds motors.
That's stock and essentially the same as used on the 1980s 307 motors. The squeal is pretty much always due to not tensioning the PS pump belt correctly.
As soon as I got the car i started researching. I can assure you that It's tensioned properly. I've come to the determination that its the fact there's two pulleys on the drivers side and nothing on the other side to provide counter tension.
......... I can assure you that It's tensioned properly.........
Not to doubt your mechanical abilities, but you need to loosen the tension on the alternator BEFORE you adjust the p/s belt. If you don't, you can pull all day long and you'll never get the p/s belt tight. Been there, done that.
As soon as I got the car i started researching. I can assure you that It's tensioned properly. I've come to the determination that its the fact there's two pulleys on the drivers side and nothing on the other side to provide counter tension.
Counter tension to what? The belt neither knows nor cares how many other belts are on the system. The water pump doesn't care, because there will ALWAYS be a side load on the shaft, no matter how many belts you have. More likely is that with the belt improperly adjusted, the belt and pulley are now glazed. I can assure you that I have personally run this belt setup without the A/C and had no squealing when adjusted properly.
None ac factory car will have 2 rib pulleys, shorter water pump and the alternator mounted on the passenger side. I just got done adding ac to a non ac car
You can just leave it as is or source the passenger side ac brackets on ebay pretty cheap
Those belts as is will squeal till they burn off, ask me how I know. Use the factory non A/C set up which puts the alternator on the drivers side, along with matching pulleys or replace your A/C compressor which either quit or seized up as they tend to do. The system would need evacuated, a new receiver dryer and checked for leaks.
Well I got it. Turns out I just had to man up and not rush it. I brought the car into my shop at work and got some proper pry bars to hold it and i got the squeal to go away. Thanks for all the responses and advice!
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