My truck is a 4x4 and the rear driveshaft came off from the front as I was driving to work this morning. I took the entire unit out, setup the truck on 4x4 and drovve home with the front wheels power! The driveshaft has some damage and I need to replace which it is going to take some time. Would it be Ok for me to keep driving the truck slowly about 20 miles a day on the front wheels until I get the part I need? Would I damage something?
Your advice is greatly appreciated,
Many thanks and enjoy the Week End!
Luis
your fine driving it front wheel. The driveline can take it just fine.
Year?
If you have 4wheel High you should be alright for a short period of time before it wears out.
Don’t travel at high speed and fix the driveline ASAP.
You do need to make sure the Transfer case fluid is not draining out of the hole where the rear Driveshaft should be. Block that with, say, a sheet of plastic duct taped over the hole, and you could drive it like that for many years. Make sure it’s in 4 high, rather than 4 AUto (if you have that option).
That must surely be the reason 4X4s are needed by MOST 4X4 drivers. The FWD will get you home when the rear driveshaft goes belly up.
How many times have you been late to work because you DIDN’T have 4Wd? Me, once in a 12" snow, but that was 25 years ago.
The year is 1996, V6 5 speed manual
You should be fine. In your case you aren’t powering all four wheels, so no damage should be incurred. The problem is when all four wheels are powered, they’re supposed to have slight differences in rotation. On dry pavement there isn’t any, so the transfer case (among other things) can wear out very quickly.
Since you’re only powering one differential and not both of them, it should be a problem. It wasn’t designed to drive the entire vehicle, and you’ll probably wear your front tires a bit faster than normal, but for the time being you should be fine.
-budd2049
Thank you so much for such great comments… I have spent about 3 hours calling junk yards trying to find the part and the problem is not the cost, they had told me that if the have it it wold be between $50 and $100. The problem is that many of the driveshafts gets damage when the cars gets pick up by the loaders, damaging all the parts under! There have been a question about been Steel or aluminum… Can I use either one? My driveshaft looks like steel from the heavy rust. There is a sticker with the letters CWM, made by three rivers. Any ideas?