Doing an under truck inspection I noticed where the exhaust pipe mounts to the bottom transmission mounting bolt that the aluminum cast below the bolt had broken out and even though the aluminum backing plate the bolts thread into was still intact, I didnt want to just stick another bolt in there and hope for the best because it is "aluminum". So I made a support to hang from the bolt that holds the transmission dip stick tube down to the bolt below it that holds the exhaust pipe mount to support the weight of the exhaust pipe.
I made it from 3/16" x 2" steel, drilled 3/8" hole for the top 3/8" bolt but made a 7/16" hole for the bottom bolt to give me a little room to play with because it was difficult to get an accurate measurement from hole to hole. I made my holes 5" apart center to center and it fit (barely).
I didn't have my torch so I hogged the metal out with my grinder to make it fit around the case which did the job ok although not real accurate. I got longer bolts (3/8" NC) so I could put some washers in front of the rubber mount and a locknut on the back side of the mounting plate to prevent the bolts from backing out anymore. Looks like it will support the weight ok. I guess the only other way to do it is to have a piece of aluminum welded in but I just wanted a quick fix that would hold it together until I could check out my options for repairing the aluminum case.
If I do have the case repaired Im STILL keeping those long bolts with locknuts on the end to prevent this from happening again.

 

nice, not a bad idea. how bad was the case?

 

The mount tab broke off about even with the top of the bolt, it's probably by the speed bump that broke it. My guess is the bolt worked its way loose allowing pressure from jolts with the weight of the exhaust pipe to increase on the transmission mount.