You know, I really got to start reading these threads closer. When I saw the title, and skimmed what he wrote, I thought he was talking about torsion bar suspension.
I was wondering what was holding up his truck if the bars were removed....
You folk are the experts in this, but here is what I did in a similar situation.
My F250 came with a Borg-Warner 1356 transfer case. Heavy duty, aluminum housing.
I had custom ordered it with the half aluminum, half titanium housing with the PTO opening.
But, when it came in, it came in with no opening.
I squawked, and they said that it had been discontinued because even with the stronger case, they were having problems with cracking with PTO usage
So, I replaced it with an NP205.
The older Fords had used them, and they had a brace from the housing to the frame on the driver's side.
But they switched about the same time they went to FI, so they used the mounting holes on the frame to mount the high pressure pump.
I did not like the idea of that much weight hanging off the end of my C6.
I could not use a factory brace from a junkyard because the pump was there, so I built one with flex.
Lets see if I can explain this so it makes sense.
I took three pieces of 1/4 inch steel plate. Rectangular, about 4 inches wide.
Drilled matching holes in one and mounted it on the side of the 205 facing down.
Mounted a longer piece solidly to the frame, sticking horizontally across toward the piece mounted on the 205, about 3 inches short.
Took a shorter piece, laid it on top of the horizontal piece, slid it over until the end was hard up against the piece on the 205.
Clamped the two horizontal pieces together, and marked them just in case.
Unbolted the long piece from the frame, and drilled two 1/2 inch holes down through both pieces.
Then, bored the holes in the short piece out to about 3/4.
Here is where it gets tricky to tell without pictures.
I put two rubber bushings, between the short piece and the long piece centered on the holes. Placed the short piece on top, and laid two more bushings on top of it.
Laid two thick washers on top of those bushings.
Ran two bolts down through the washers, bushings,short piece, bushing, and then the long piece.
Put nuts on the bottom, and tightened them down until there was no slop.
Mounted the assembly back to the frame, the short piece was again touching the piece on the 205.
Put some scales on top of a floor jack, and used it to jack up the 205 mounted to the truck until the scales read the weight of a 205.
As it moved up slightly, the piece on the side slid up in reference to the short piece.
When I was sure all the weight was resting on the scales, I tack-welded the end of the short piece to the piece on the side so it formed a piece of angle iron.
Took the whole mess off, and finished welding it.
Now, the 205 has what looks like a piece of super heavy angle iron bolted to it. The horizontal part does not touch any steel.
It is "captured" between two sets of rubber bushings top and bottom.
It can go up or down by compressing them.
The holes in it that the bolts go through, are larger than the bolts, so it can move a short distance in any horizontal direction by sliding between the bushings, which were greased when installed.
Sorry for the long post, if I could post a drawing easily, it would not be necessary.
Its easier to show than tell.
I do not do the kind of flexing that you folks do, and a 205 housing is not likely to break even if my design was flawed.
But it has been on there for about 20 years, so take it for what its worth.
