I posted earlier about my u-joint on the drive shaft off the gear box had a catastrophic failure. With the shaft removed, the yoke going into the gear box had a bit of play up/down & side to side so I figured that the bearing was bad and needed to be replaced. I have pulled the engine/gearbox and after examining the yoke the bolt that holds it to the shaft was backed out a little and when I tightened it up the play was totally gone. So it appears that the bearings are good after all. The question still remains if there are other issues inside the gearbox. And my main concern is the fact that when the rear shaft was off (no power going to the rear wheels) that at first I was able to put it in 6 wheel drive and the front wheels pulled me forward and in reverse but then just after a few feet it quit working.
So my question is has anybody ever had to drive their 4x4 with the rear drive shaft disconnected and using only the front drive. It would seem to me that you should be able to do it, but maybe there has to be some back pressure on the gearbox rear output shaft for the actuator to properly work. I’m really not looking forward to tearing into the gearbox, and if anybody knows anything about this, I’m all ears.