The ' Ho (a, t) and ( He, d) reactions have been measured at beam energies of 40 and 25 MeV to look for the K =1+[9 [514] --[523]] two-proton band structure in '66Er. Reaction products were analyzed using a quadrupole-three-dipole spectrometer. Distorted-wave Born approximation predictions were used to extract candidate states with angular momentum transfer 1=5. The measured strengths of all the candidates for l =5 transitions were compared with the Nilsson fingerprint pattern of the K =1+ [ 2 [514] -2 [523]] band to identify the structure. No strong population of this configuration was found. At best two tentative candidates for the I =3+ and 4+ members of this band could be identified, which would represent at most 38% of the expected strength for this configuration. The bandhead for this tentative K =1+ excitation does not correspond to any I =1+ state observed in the Er(y, y') reaction. PACS number(s): 25.55. Hp, 21.10.Re, 27.70.+ q