tips on repower

i aquired a 66 suburban complete except for engine. tore down repainted and ready to repower with a clone motor and wondered if anybody had advice on the clutch fabrication. i made a air cleaner assembly to allow me to keep the hood on and in location. the exhaust is still exiting under the hood and needs to be routed out as well if anybody has ideas on that. thanks.

You probably already have this up and running, but here's a couple of pics of what we did. For the clutch bracket, we used the factory one. Instead of bolting to the back of the block, we used a piece of angle iron to bolt to the frame, for the clutch assembly to bolt to. The clutch assembly is not fastened to the engine at all, but is mounted independently. If you look close, in you can see the angle iron mounting piece in this pic...



Here, you can see the pulley and clutch arm...



Here's a shot of what the exhaust looks like...with a muffler and 1 1/2" stack.

This picture shows an option for mounting the clutch idler after a repower. I can't claim the engineering on this job. The pic was in the archives; it's from an unknown poster.

The concept is great. I may however have changed the execution a bit by:

1. Use larger diameter cold rolled bar stock instead of all thread.

2. Weld the idler arm portion onto the steel bar.

3. Use two bolt flange bearings on each end for support. Mount on inside of frame.

4. Use cotter pins/washers on each end of the bar to keep it centered.

The clutch engagement system on the Suburbans wears quite a bit over time. That is the reason for most of the shakes, rattles, etc. that the old tractors make. Someday I will experiment with this mounting arrangement on one of my tractors and will hopefully have a full photo how-to.

Spence

Edit to include link to flange bearing. Flange Bearing Link Here

I use the clutch assembly from st models or ss16s or larger. It is part of the battery tray and does not attach to the engine block. With the correct drive pully positioning and belt length, the repower should be a snap.