Hey guys- I'm trying to find a brace that will tie the transfer case and transmission together. I'm ok if it is weld together. Anyone know of one that exists? Used search and couldn't find one.

 

What's you're reasoning?

 

Curious to hear of it's purpose. Might be something you'd have to custom fabricate.

 

Cast iron block is pretty strong, mated to aluminum trans which isn't too strong and transfer case just hangs there. Split trans housings aren't uncommon. I just want to spread the load, will be less stress to bearing carriers and ring & pinions. I was really hoping someone already made one.

 

The tcase and trans are pretty solidly together. I would build a brace to tie the tcase to the block. It would effectively "triangulate" the assembly. Or built a mount for the tcase to the chassis, but the flex of this mount would have to very closely match the others...

The way to do it is how we do it in offroad in the trophy trucks. Motor plate for the front and rear of the engine, so it's 100% solid on it's own. And than the trans obviously bolts to the motor/motor plate, and is bushing mounted at the rear to keep the trans case together. This is obviously very difficult, if not impossible, to do with a transverse mounted engine/trans. But it's the ultimate solution...

 

As the engine rocks in its motor mounts the transfer case moves a LOT. This is the cause of the mandated recall of all early AWD DSM vehicles. If the transmission splits it may be due to the transfer case hitting something. As long as it is free of obstruction I don't see it being stressed. Stiffer motor mounts may be the solution here.

 

I completely forgot about triangulating the tcase.

Barney- you think the tcase is hitting the body? Right now, the bell housing is being viced between the tcase, engine and trans. With the front mount on the bell housing it just puts all the torque'ng on that housing to crack it.

 

Would it be possible to post a picture of this?

 

This shows how BlitzKrieg does it for their trophy truck/7200 chassis. They have a rear motor plate (the big piece of billet aluminum between the motor and trans) with conventional side motor mounts that have stiff poly bushings. This mostly solid mounts the engine. Some chassis builders use a front motor plate and forego the side mounts, this is especially common in the short course trucks more so than the desert trucks. The trans is bolted to the motor plate, and the back of the trans is mounted with a poly bushing I most trucks though. The case tends to break around the rear mount if the the trans is 100% solid mounted.

 

Could be. It is at least worth a look.

 

Here's the carnage. It just looks like the carrier bearing couldn't take the load.

Inside the bell housing




Inside the trans.

 

Call Jon at TRE. He can assist you in resolving this issue. This is caused by the load from the gears at high tq and high rpm. (Launching the car will also cause this due to the shock). Bracing the Tcase will not resolve this issue.

 

I'll probably give a call over there. I was reading up a bit on his site. I realized after taking the case apart that a brace alone probably won't do any good.