2000 Xterra Front Wheel Drive

Just out of curiosity, what would happen if the rear drive shaft was disconnected and the Xterra was put in 4WD? Would it work?

A question for technical experts.

Gus

yes it would work, but not something that I would recomend doing. Hopefully you are asking because if you damage your rear drivetrain while wheeling and need to get out, and not in an attempt to make it into a front wheel drive?

My father's CJ-7 was set up like this when he first bought it. Apparently the guy who owned it previously, snapped an axle or something and opted not to fix it. Instead, he put the Jeep in four wheel drive and drove it like that.

It wasn't very good for the front tires. However, after driving the Jeep over 1000 miles, there was no damage that my father could find to the transfer case or otherwise. He simply replaced the axle (let me tell you, once he tore it apart, it was quite apparent that this was a huge safety issue) and everything worked fine. Well, until he dropped second gear.

Disconnected...as in out of the splines...?

You'd loose t-case oil all over the place...the rear shaft's seals hold the oil in.



Mechanically, the front could drag you along....so forgetting the oil loss issues, you'd have FWD.

Yes it would work, but why?

I did this once on the way home from playing around in my 1951 Willy's Wagon. I snapped the rear driveshaft from the diff and had to drive 25 miles home in FWD with the driveshaft bungeed up and outta the way.

I would not recommend this unless you break the rear drivetrain.

TJ was on the right track, but didn't explain it well. It will work, but there is a big problem. The output shaft of the transfer case is a slip yoke and also acts as the rear oil seal for the transfer case. Assuming you didn't pull the yoke out with the driveshaft it would still fall out without the driveshaft to hold it in place and you dump the oil out of the transfer case.

CJ's and older Jeeps can get by without a rear driveshaft because the yoke is bolted on to the rear of the transfer case and the slip joint is in the drive shaft. Newer Jeeps are set up just like ours.

Yeah - I was trying to be brief for once.