Transfer case strut/rod

[rpcraft]

The spacers on the crossmember go down below the spacer, the bolt heads go down, the nuts go on top of the frame rail (it was originally a flanged type nut (so as to not extend below the flat plane of the crossmember). The working theory is that the spacers combined with longer bolts act as some kind of a stretch mechanism that prevents the bolts from snapping if you snag the crossmember. Not sure if there is really any science to that. Personally I am just going to make a custom crossmember and forward bar setup and a then a large shaped aluminum plate across the bottom of the truck that is a proper skid plate once I get all the power train adjusted and permanently installed. I'll probably just add a cutout for proper driveshaft clearance while moving up and down.

If i recall properly, Originally the NP205 had a support plate that bolted on the side of the tcase for a manual trans that extended to the frame rail on the passenger's side with 2 donut stye rubber mounts (in addition to the 4 rubber pieces that mounted to the crossmember adapter). I am unsure if it was different for the auto transmissions or not at that time, and I am also not sure why they stopped using it, but I imagine it was due to cracking of the t-case adapters due to sideways flexing

I have been contemplating whether to run the rod or not, but I think without the additional support brackets that run under the motor mounts to the inspection cover it doesn't help that much and since I am doing an LS swap I am not trying to complicate the setup any more than it already is. I also believe that on the second gen 4l60E's that the one piece bellhousing with an inspection hole is much stronger but that is only for LS swap stuff. In my case I am running a first gen 4l60E that shares the same body as the 700R4 so it has the removable inspection plate so I think I could technically set it all up if I can find the original parts and modify them to sit under the bracketry.

 

[Blue Ox]

The science behind the spacers is longer bolts can be stretched more to improve clamping force.

 

[Sublime]

Thank you everyone, the info is much appreciated

 

[rpcraft]

The science behind the spacers is longer bolts can be stretched more to improve clamping force.

I just swapped to metric bolts and used a 12.9 bolt and flanged nut. It was one of those days where I was already in the metric section and they had the flanged nuts but I could not find any grade 8 flanged nuts, lol. I did a little phone research while there to figure out that technically the 12.9 has a slightly higher clamp load rating than grade 8 so I figured it was a safe swap.