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That's an intriguing question. On one side is the fact that Chrysler [ or any other manufacturer for that matter ] never spent the money to put a part on a car if they didn't think it was necessary. At the same time they didn't put them on manual trasmission cars which were subjected to higher shock loads. All I can say is that lots of people with headers do without one or both braces and they don't appear to have any problems that can be attributed to the lack of a brace[s]. FWIW when I had my old Duster with a 727 and TTI headers I modified the factory brace to fit. Pretty sure it was the right side brace that I altered.



I was going to say the same thing.

even on the 97-04 Dakotas, the automatic trucks had block to lower bell braces. Manual trucks did not get these braces.


so...why are they there on some trucks but not on others? what exactly are they supporting?



looking at the thickness of the auto bell and the manual bell, the manual bell is thicker and more ridgid.

I have broke a auto bell before by running over cyprees knees/stumps in the swamps,cant say I have done that with the manual trans.

same reason the xfer comes with a ridged brace. I busted more than 1 alum xfer without them inplace

IMHO, you can run without them but you need to be ready to fix it at any giving time.