Stratus alt bracket on srt engine

[t3rse]

So, after running the stratus bracket on the front of my srt motor for a while, I noticed the belt had jumped on the outer edge of the pulley because the lower bolt fell out for some odd reason. Anyways, the thing always squeaked so I took a closer look at it and noticed that the alternator was canted.

Yes, canted. I don't know how I failed to note this before but the rear most portion of the alternator is closer to the driver side than the front. This, of course, caused an alignment issue with the pulley. It is so off that it is easily visible (if only I had bothered to look closer before I assumed it would line up nicely). This information must exist somewhere and I just neglected to find it, or else my bracket is somehow tweaked, though I doubt it. My solution will be to drill out the bottom left hole (with the long bolt) so I can shim the passenger side of the bracket until it is square. Once I find the offset I'll weld aluminum shims in there to make it easier to mess with in the future.

[rbryant]

Interesting. I will ave to take a look and make sure that isn't the case on mine.

I have never seen this information and I didn't notice it on my bracket so I will have to look. I just can't imagine that they changed the block bosses from the older to newer block.

The AC mounts changed because of the oil pump which is understandable but the top mounts really shouldn't have changed from the old 2.4 blocks to the SRT4 block...

-Rich

[t3rse]

take a good look at it...maybe mine is tweaked, but definately looks ----ed

[t3rse]

may have found the culprit...will post more when I see what is up

[rbryant]

may have found the culprit...will post more when I see what is up

Interesting...

Isn't turboshad also using this setup? Or did he use an old style block...

I looked at mine a little last night and my only concern was if they made the bosses on the block longer for the SRT4 or something. I couldn't see a misalignment but I also didn't have a belt on it.

If something was changed in the mount we probably just need to get one from a newer stratus that uses the 01+ block so it isn't the end of the world.

-Rich

[t3rse]

I don't think it is the mount...I think it may be the alternator I ended up using and how it self aligns.

[rbryant]

I don't think it is the mount...I think it may be the alternator I ended up using and how it self aligns.

Well that is good news for me. ;)

Now you have me worrying about he alternator you used. I actually grabbed one from a non stratus or a 2.0 stratus or something in the junkyard because it looked the same but cleaner.

-Rich

[t3rse]

To get mine square, I had to put a washer between the tang and the bracket on the passenger side and I ground down the spacing split sleeve to be flush so that the driver side is pulled against the bracket. Everything looks kosher now.

[t3rse]

I take back what I said yesterday...after tightening everything up the alternator is ----ed again...

[t3rse]

OK...I'm totally perplexed as to why, but I know the issue. The bracket is bored on the driver side lower mount and has a sleeve that allows a m10 bolt, which fits somewhat snug. The other end of the bracket is larger and allows slop. Therefore, when it is tightened, there is not another point touching the bolt inside the bracket that keeps the alternator squared to the bracket. When I tighten the upper bolt it just doesn't line up right. I'm going to drill the bracket hole a tad and run a larger bolt. I had gone so far as making an offset sleeve for the lower bolt to hold it out but that didn't work so this is all I can see to do at this point.

edit: I drilled everything out to 1/2" and it is snug with no play now...reinstalled and it looks straight. I'll check again tomorrow when I have ambient light.

[t3rse]

the verdict is in: drilling out and running a tighter bottom bolt solved my problem