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Does a 205 need the brace on the passenger side?

handloader90

handloader90

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Swapped a TH350/NP205 in place of a clapped put TH400/NP203.

The 205 originally had the L shaped bracket deal bolted on the passenger side with some bushings and a bracket that went to the frame rail.

The 203 had a rod type bracket that ran from one of the passenger side bellhousing bolts and bolted up on the passenger side of the case.

I don't have room to install the 205's original bracket (exhaust is currently shoved over there).

The 203 rod style bracket is too long, the holes in the bracket are nowhere near the holes on the t-case.

I thought that at some point the 205 didn't even have holes drilled for any kind of torque mount?

Am I safe to run it like this?
 
I try to keep them in if they are there
My 72 had one
The 77 didn’t from the factory

Guess Mother General didn’t think we needed them
 
My 83, with a manual doesn’t have one.
The 91 burban I robbed a 241 from had the brace that ran from the case up to the transmission bellhousing.
And a 81 k30 with an auto I looked at last week had one too.

Guess it’s all dependent on the configuration. Other than those three I had never ran across any before.
 
The NP-205 I had in my 72 K5 and one just like it I put in a '77 GMC had that side brace bracket...(both were coupled to TH350's)..The '77 had a NP-203 previously,I had to use the bracket I got with the NP-205..but I think the NP-203 one could have been tweaked and would have worked,they look very close..

Only setup GM didn't put some sort of bracket or truss rod on the T-case to frame or bell housing that I know of was some late '70's with SM465's amd NP-203's...the adapter and SM465 are beefy enough to hold it up without one,being cast iron..

I'd be leery of a heavy cast iron t-case hanging off a TH350,especially one that had some cracks welded up..
I suppose on the street it would live,but off roading and getting some bouncing going on may not be a good idea..no burnouts either!..
 
Right side brace? Huh, that's strange, my 205 has a brace on the left side..........

Yeah, Yeah, I know, its a Ford......

As I have told here before, my brand new F250 came with a BW1356 transfer case. I ordered it with the PTO option. When it came in, it had no PTO opening. Turns out, that even with changing half the case from Aluminum to Magnesium, it was still not strong enough to not crack, so they dropped the option.
So, I pulled the transfer case, with about 100 actual miles on it out and replaced it with a 205.
The mounting holes for the brace were still in the frame, but they were being used to mount the high pressure fuel pump for the fuel injection.
A little later, I realized that I could not get a shaft from the PTO to the front of the truck, so I mounted the PTO unit facing to the rear, and hung a huge honking cast iron hydraulic pump on it to run my winch.
Which meant that the bell housing of my C6 was supporting not only the 205, but the cast iron PTO gearbox and a large cast iron pump.
A C6 bell housing is fairly stout, but that was just stupid.
Even so, I think I ran it almost 2 years before I just could not stand it any longer.
Finally drove it into a friend's machine shop. Bolted a flat piece of about 1/2" plate to the side of the case, with some sticking down. Bolted a wide flat 1/2" thick arm from the bottom of the frame almost over to that plate.
Then "floated" another piece between two rubber bushings top and bottom. Jacked up the transfer case assembly until the transmission bushings "looked right". Then went about 1/4 inch higher.
Slid the floating piece over until it touched the piece mounted on the case, and tacked them together with a couple of welds.
Unbolted the piece off the case, and the floating piece and did a good welding job.

Bolted them back up, and watched when we lowered the jack.
The bushings we put in the new brace compressed some, and the transmission mounts did too. But they looked a lot less compressed than when we started.

That was in about 1990, and several hundred thousand miles later, everything is still going strong. No cracks in the bell housing, and the transfer case has not fallen out either.

If the skeeters from Hell don't suck me dry or carry me away this week, I need to get under and check on the high pressure fuel pump, so I you like, I can take some pics to give you some ideas.

Is a brace necessary? Well, there are hundreds of thousands of GM trucks driving around with 10 bolt GovBombs underneath, with no problems what so ever. So, is that D60 with a Detroit really necessary?
It all depends.......
 
My 89 CCLB had one when I bought it (TBI350, TH400, NP205). Swapped to 8.1/NV4500/NP205 and I kept the brace...just cause it still fit, so why not
 
Kay86K5 said:
My 89 CCLB had one when I bought it (TBI350, TH400, NP205). Swapped to 8.1/NV4500/NP205 and I kept the brace...just cause it still fit, so why not
Click to expand...
I was trying to use one of the two style I have.

I guess a some point I'll do like a lot of people and use a plate off of the back of the case going down to a bushed sleeve to a crossmember.
 
handloader90 said:
I was trying to use one of the two style I have.

I guess a some point I'll do like a lot of people and use a plate off of the back of the case going down to a bushed sleeve to a crossmember.
Click to expand...

Yeah, on my K5 (Titan/205 setup) I did a mount off the PTO cover to the crossmember/skidplate...the K5 is the crawler, and the CCLB is the tow rig, so I was building them a bit different from each other
 
The 205 I just installed on the back of my 4L80e had the strut that was bolted to the th400. Bit since it didn’t fit I fabricated a mount of the side using a stock transmission mount. I just didn’t feel comfortable running that much weight back there without any support.
 
Esteban86K5 said:
The 205 I just installed on the back of my 4L80e had the strut that was bolted to the th400. Bit since it didn’t fit I fabricated a mount of the side using a stock transmission mount. I just didn’t feel comfortable running that much weight back there without any support.
Click to expand...

That was my concern... the weight of the 205 just chillin back there.

A lot of guys aren't running anything off of the 205 and they're fine. I'm not out there crawling this thing so I should be ok until I can do one of those fancy bushes support brackets to a crossmember.
 
With a auto case I would worry not having it there. Many people probably don’t have it and never have s problem though.
 
I would not run the tcase to frame brace because you could break the trans case from irregular forces under drivetrain twisting. I would however use the tcase to bellhousing brace.
 
GM did use a bracket on the NP-205's with TH350's ,that had rubber doughnuts in between the bracket and frame rail to allow for some flexing..
If it worked for them,then why not us ?..

Personally I'd be leery with only 4 bolts threaded in an aluminum transmission tail housing , to hold up a 200 lb cast iron case ,when you get the truck bouncing over frost heaves on a highway...
 
The 205 is supported by the adapter. It's not like its hanging there. The only thing the 4 bolts do is forward and backward movement. Which is also controlled by that strut rod from the transfer case to the bellhousing.

If you have all bad rubber mounts, motor and transfer case, and that side mount is there to the frame, I bet your bellhousing would twist and break at that 4 bolt flange. A lot of discussion about this in the doubler crossmember thread from Stephen at ord.
 
Ford used the same mount, except on the driver's side.
Its pretty obvious that its is designed to flex proportionally about the same as the motor and transmission mounts.
Of course, when its factory, they all start off the same, and as the truck ages the rubber ages the same amount per mount. Just as its not a good idea to replace just the engine or transmission mounts without replacing both, putting a new brace on a truck with other bad mounts might cause trouble.
When I designed mine, I tried to give it enough flex so that it would share the load with the other mounts. Plus, my truck was only about 2 years old at the time, so the other mounts were still pretty much the same as new.
Not sure I understand the difference between the 4 bolt flange breaking due to torque, but being plenty of support for up and down movement caused by 200 lbs of cast iron and steel dropping into holes and hitting bumps at speed.
The side mount, with proper rubber float, will take the up and down load, as well as the torque load and share it with the other mounts.
I agree that any rigid mount would stress the whole system, but the bracket that came from the factory, and the one I designed and built, is far from rigid.
 
Esteban86K5 said:
The 205 I just installed on the back of my 4L80e had the strut that was bolted to the th400. Bit since it didn’t fit I fabricated a mount of the side using a stock transmission mount. I just didn’t feel comfortable running that much weight back there without any support.
Click to expand...

Whoa! Man how ya been?
 
Esteban86K5 said:
Been doing great. Its been a while since I've had something to post about. HAHA. But it seems i'm back into it.
What about you?
Click to expand...

Doing great. Still got the Blazer. It's all in pieces right now getting a new cage and full hydro and yada yada LOL
 
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