[DeTomaso] Aluminum Pulleys

[Daniel C Jones]

> All 11 of my pulleys and idlers are aluminum. A word of caution,
> however, aluminum is soft and I don't believe it holds up well
> without being hard surfaced. I had all my pulleys hard surfaced
> and they seem to be doing OK.

I've heard that untreated aluminum pulleys wear quickly.  I believe
March makes there pulley out of 6061-T6 and hard coat the wear surfaces
(to 65 Rockwell "C" scale).  A local guy is making some custom pulleys
out of 7075 and then dipping them in some sort of surface treatment.

> I can't see any advantage to having aluminum pulleys.

I need a second set (keeping the first set for the backup motor) and
thought I'd save some weight.  That cast iron crank pulley is heavy.

> You may have trouble finding an aluminum water pump pulley.

March shows aluminum water pump, crankshaft and alternator pulleys for
the 351C.  They make a couple of sets, one that underdrives (relative
to OEM Ford, not the Pantera) and one that overdrives using a different
size water pump pulley:

  underdrive set
    crank pulley       5 1/2"
    water pump pulley  6 1/4"
    alternator pulley  2 11/16"

  overdrive set
    crank pulley       5 1/2"
    water pump pulley  5 1/4"
    alternator pulley  2 11/16"

Dan Jones