So, the new battery that the previous owner put in, wasn't the right battery. It fit in the tray but not down under the lip into the tray, and as is was sitting at what I thought was dangerously close to the alternator fan, at an inch or less. That, and the ridiculously huge aluminum bracket that also once held the air pump under the alternator (which I had past experience with, with my '83 3.8 Cougar, busting clean off across the cylinder head mounting bolt holes one morning, rendering the car un-drive-able and not quickly repairable), as well as incorporating the steel bracket for the adjustable idler pulley, which was protesting fairly loudly with the engine running, no doubt due to a lack of lubrication. So, again I looked around and priced the idler and alternative pulleys that could be made to work... ridiculous cost involved IMHO, and the fact remained that I wasn't comfortable with how close the battery and alternator were, even after relocating the battery tray as far forward as possible.
So first, here's a before and after:
I removed the steel tube brace to the intake and the alternator/idler bracket, the alternator, and then the aluminum combination alternator/air pump bracket from the cylinder head. So, with hack saw and file, I got rid of all of the aluminum but the cylinder head mounting face with bolt holes and the air pump hole, cut to length (accounting for the air pump hole being about an inch further rearward, that needed spacing the alternator forward for belt alignment) the necessary length threaded stud for the alternator to now pivot on, fabricated two nice thick strips of steel for mounting and adjusting brackets.
Both:
The bottom bracket for alternator pivot. I learned about the necessity of this bracket the hard way with the Cougar. A threaded stud alone is not enough to counter the forces when the belt is tightened:
The top bracket, for belt tightening adjustment:
Miles away from the battery, and nice quiet running under hood, and a nice short belt with the removal of the dealer-installed AC as well. The upper rad hose and belt had about an inch between them, but I made that short piece of steel attached to the fan shroud to hold the hose away just for safety sake. My super-dooper steel strip bent-and-hooked-into-inner-fender-hole, threaded rod, and wingnut battery hold-down can be seen here too, lol:
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