Wow, you need some better photos to view. The 'brace' you speak of is
actually the right muffler support. No connection to the bumper. If you
need photos I can send you some.

The first strap is necessary to keep the early rubber-mounted engine
carrier bars tied together and moving in unison. I've found that without
this they can shake around quite a bit at certain rpms.

Karl

Don Hanson wrote:
> Ok, thanks all for the input.  Seems like the cross-brace is not crucial,
> but does do something for the whole package.  As I looked more closely at
> Bently, I now see another 'brace' for lack of a better description.  This
> one seems to come along the passenger side of the pan, about 3" from the
> rear where the Oil drain plug is located and attaches to the pan, also.  My
> pan has a casting to accept a through bolt there, but there is nothing in
> that hole, either.  In the illustration in Bently, this bracket looks to
> attach somewhere along the front edge of the bumper?
>   The drawback of buying an already "complete" conversion from someone far
> away...And it is not a help that I am on my first ever Vanagon, so I have
> not seen a complete one...So of course, I can't really be sure when
> something is not there on this one.
>   Whatever, the van went in to the local shop today and I was encouraged to
> speak to the mechanic who was doing the work and to find him 'vanagon-
> savvy' or at least he knew the right words...