A-4 fore-and-aft alignment

PenokeeBlue · Post by **PenokeeBlue** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 7:32 pm

I'm having a hard time keeping my "no more questions" promise. Briefly thought about changing my name to disguise excessive posting but couldn't get that crafty.

I was looking through other parts of the forum and found the thread on cockpit scupper through-hulls. Someone (Tim IIRC) mentioned that the A-4 was mounted fairly far back in the Triton. This reminded me of something I saw on the boat I looked at.

The whole step/engine-box set up struck me as being original, right down to the beige-and-white formica. Yet the lower pulley (okay, I have a lot to learn about A-4s!) on the front of the engine (had a belt on it) was actually touching the vertical part of the box that I think would have had the middle step on it (okay, it had been changed slightly, it had a ladder running from the companionway down to the battery box/bottom step - but the engine cover looked original). There was actually a little dent in the vertical piece of plywood forming the front of the engine box (I must figure out how to post photos to the site) that was made by or for the lower pulley's center bolt.

Has the engine in this Triton been hideously mis-mounted or something? Are others this way? I know enough to have been visually sure that it *was* an Atomic Four. Painted green. 1961 Triton

Thanks --- Rachel

Post by **Tim** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 7:39 pm

Yet the lower pulley (okay, I have a lot to learn about A-4s!) on the front of the engine (had a belt on it) was actually touching the vertical part of the box

The old-style A4s as installed in the Triton didn't have an accessory pulley on the front of the engine, though the engine was designed for one to be installed as an accessory. Therefore, it seems that the pulley was added to your engine to drive something--an aftermarket alternator in place of the original generator, or something? To what did the belt lead?

So the engine should be as originally installed and not pulled too far forward--but with the optional pulley mounted to the front, which could hit the original engine box, as the original clearances were pretty tight. Others know way more about A4s than I do, and may chime in with other thoughts.