My GL-10 wagon has a center diff lock. If I lock it could I take the front half shaves out without worring about breaking anything? I read on here that some people with the trans that can be front wheel drive put them in 4WD and can take the front shaves out. I wasn't sure if it would work the same.

yes that is possible. your front wheel bearings will be exposed, i believe the axle provides some cover if not a direct seal for the bearings in the hub.

it is an unlikely but serious safety hazzard. if the circuit gets broken for any reason or the button gets pushed by you, someone else, an animal or inanimate object you would loose all power. not ideal in an intersection.

 

why would you want RWD?

yes that is possible. your front wheel bearings will be exposed, i believe the axle provides some cover if not a direct seal for the bearings in the hub.

 

why would you want RWD?

 

because it tears crap up!!

 

I didn't want RWD, but since I still haven't bought front axles, the xt6 is in rip-it-up-rwd-mode....

 

I took it out in dad's field and dug some ruts taking corners with diff locked

 

now that I think about it I should have taken it out in the road and videotaped some XT6 burnouts :confused:

I took it out in dad's field and dug some ruts taking corners with diff locked

good point D, but if you're not getting stuck and can't do that in AWD the field isn't nearly messy enough!

yes that is possible. your front wheel bearings will be exposed, i believe the axle provides some cover if not a direct seal for the bearings in the hub.

it is an unlikely but serious safety hazzard. if the circuit gets broken for any reason or the button gets pushed by you, someone else, an animal or inanimate object you would loose all power. not ideal in an intersection.

 

why would you want RWD?

 

I have to replace my front cv joints so while I was waiting on them I wanted to see if I could use RWD, and to see how different it would handle.

leave the old axles in. i've run fronts for 50,000 miles and rears for 100,000 miles with broken boots, they won't fail. if they're clickign while driving straight, pack some grease in by hand to quite them up. otherwise you could do it, but probably better to just sawzall the axle close to the hub and leave the old CV in the hub at least to keep the wheel seal and bearings protected.

The brake rotor and the hub/wheel assembly mount onto the end of the half-shaft. so it can't be completely removed and still have front wheels. Since the end of the shaft which acts as the drive spindle is integral with the CV cup, to make this work you need to disassemble the CV joint and leave the cup still attached to the knuckle, et al. This disassembly is not necessarily easy to do; might need a BFHammer.

 

From what I have read/seen recently, the transfer gears are not exceptionally beefy, and you risk damaging the gearbox if you drive it too hard in RWD only.

The brake rotor and the hub/wheel assembly mount onto the end of the half-shaft. so it can't be completely removed and still have front wheels. Since the end of the shaft which acts as the drive spindle is integral with the CV cup, to make this work you need to disassemble the CV joint and leave the cup still attached to the knuckle, et al. This disassembly is not necessarily easy to do; might need a BFHammer.

 

From what I have read/seen recently, the transfer gears are not exceptionally beefy, and you risk damaging the gearbox if you drive it too hard in RWD only.

 

to clarify, mine still has the cups installed, sans axles

could he just sawzall or torch the axle off?

could he just sawzall or torch the axle off?

 

Yes, but unless he welds the center diff, it will break eventually. It wasn't designed to be the main drive gear.

could he just sawzall or torch the axle off?

Do you mean the spindle from the integral cup, or the axle shaft between the CV and the DOJ? The shaft between the CV and DOJ would produce nasty flopping (which I am sure that you know), and the severing of the cup form the spindle might be nigh near impossible with a sawzall due to toughness of the steel, and the torch would probably ruin that toughness.

 

Maybe a cutoff wheel, which would only destroy the local tempering of the cup and spindle...

The shaft between the CV and DOJ would produce nasty flopping (which I am sure that you know),

nope, didn't think about that! good call, it's a bad idea.