Empty bolt-holes in bellhousing?

[cape_royds]

Looking underneath my truck (2011 std cab base model 2.3L auto) the other day, I noticed that there were a couple of empty threaded holes in the bellhousing. I have attached a photo.

Are those holes meant to be left w/o bolts?

I tried looking for online images of the underside of a Ranger to get an idea of what it's supposed to look like, but I couldn't seem to find anything. So I figured I would ask here.

 

[RonD]

There may have been a bracket there, but if they are threaded then there should be bolts in them.
Some bell housings have empty dowel holes, for proper lineup, but they are not threaded

 

[adsm08]

It's possible that there were brackets there on a previous year. The 5R44E trans in your truck has been around for over 10 years. Sometimes certain peripheral parts (lines, brackets, wiring) have their routing changed or are deleted altogether but if the major components (engine, trans, axle) aren't redesigned things like threaded holes that were there to accommodate those parts are just left be.


Also, sometimes threaded holes for things on the front of the bell housing (inspection covers and the like) go the whole way through even though the bolts don't.


If the trans has never been out I wouldn't worry about it too much.

 

[stegomon]

maybe for the assembly process. kinda like the lift points on a 2.9. some times the hoops are there and sometimes not