I have a magnum front cover with all the accessories in a 79 dodge truck that has manual steering and no ac so what I'm looking to do is dump the ac compressor and the ps pump. The ac seems simple enough it's the ps pump that looks to be tricky.

The best solution I've come up with is changing the idler beside the alt from a smooth pulley to a grooved pulley and running the belt over instead of under like factory. My worry is that gonna give the back of the belt enough contact with the water pump pulley to not cause slipping and problems?

The only other solution I can see is moving the alt to where the ps pump was which is some fab work I'd love to avoid since it involves belt alignment.

I do realize the best fix would be just swap to a LA front end but between tracking down pulleys and having to buy a new alternator and water pump I'd rather avoid that.

I'd have to have the engine infront of me to tell if it'll work or not, but as long as you have close to 90 degrees of wrap, I wouldn't worry too much. you could come off the crank, wrap it backwards around the water pump and go up to the alt. idle pulley, around the alt, down to the idler, back to the crank.

if that doesn't look like enough wrap around the water pump, how does it look if you get a ribbed water pump pulley, and come straight up of the crank, like the big blocks do, then around and up to the alt or idle pulley?

I'd be more worried about the amount of wrap around the alternator so it doesn't squeel under high electrical loads.

I would love to get a ribbed water pump pulley but wouldn't that change the direction the pump turns? Plus with the magnums I think the pulleys are pressed on?

I'm gonna go look at it today but I think I'll end up with alittle less then 90 deg which is why I'm iffy about it.

The later magnum water pump(about 01-up)pulleys are not removable. So are all of the factory replacements. As for the A/C, you can find a magnum v6 or v8 front accessory bracket in the junk yard without previsions for A/C. Then just get rid of the P/S pump and use alot shorter belt.