Well, it's back to the drawing board on the air conditioning project. While the system worked well, there was a problem with the bracket I made (actually modified). For some reason, that I still can't figure out, the bracket made the compressor pulley out of alignment with the engine pulley. This caused the belt to appear to stretch, but was actually wear.
So now that A/C season is approaching, I decided to re-engineer the bracket and ensure that the alignment was spot on to avoid the wear problem.
Here's the new bracket fresh from being powder coated in black chrome (pay no attention to my welds - I know they're ugly)
In the course of modifying the bracket I noted that the compressor didn't line up properly as is evidenced in this image. Hmmm, another bracket alignment problem. Well, this time, I'll fix it before it gets on the car.
So the solution was to move the compressor forward by using spacers and a sleeve. It was a little tricky to get everything to fit snug to prevent excess pressure on the compressor tabs. To avoid having to loosen the tab bolt every time the belt needs tightening, the bolt will be snugged enough to have adequate pressure to eliminate slack, but loose enough to move with the heim tensioner.
I also welded the nut to the outside of the tab so I only have one mounting bolt and since this will not be fully tightened, I drilled the allen head bolt for safety wire to prevent backing out. (Now I've just got to find some safety wire locally)
My hope is to be able to swap brackets without having to empty the propane out of the system and re-charge. It's really, really tight in there, so I won't know until I try.