disconecting front drive shaft

[StrizzyChris]

just to be clear for others down the road that have this question, its vehicle specific. It depends on what transfer case you have. You said its an xj, so you its probably a 242 or 231 and yes you'll be fine as others have said. However if you have a 249 (awd) transfer case you should not drive around without the front drive shaft. It will burn out the viscous coupling inside the T case. 249's mostly cam in grand cherokee's, not too sure if an xj's ever had them.

Nice contribution! I did not know there was a difference!

[OverlanderJK]

Nice contribution! I did not know there was a difference!

[StrizzyChris]

100% serious! I had no clue that in some vehicles, if u disconnect the front DS the transfer case could be damaged. I assumed it would just spin without consequence and just serve no purpose until reconnected!

[BlackDiamondBound]

100% serious! I had no clue that in some vehicles, if u disconnect the front DS the transfer case could be damaged. I assumed it would just spin without consequence and just serve no purpose until reconnected!

It depends on how the TC is built. The viscous coupler acts like torque converter. When one drive shaft would start to spin faster then the other the VC heats up to try and spin both at near equal speeds. With the front DS off it would be trying to do this all day long and eventually will burn its self up. The company New Process or New Venture Gear, the company that makes the transfer cases did away with this type of VC in 1996, but their transfer cases are all over the place in fords, gm's, and jeeps.

[CerOf]

It depends on how the TC is built. The viscous coupler acts like torque converter. When one drive shaft would start to spin faster then the other the VC heats up to try and spin both at near equal speeds. With the front DS off it would be trying to do this all day long and eventually will burn its self up. The company New Process or New Venture Gear, the company that makes the transfer cases did away with this type of VC in 1996, but their transfer cases are all over the place in fords, gm's, and jeeps.

Nope, they kept them through the 1998 ZJ.

They were never found from the factory under an XJ.

The VC is unit with a viscous fluid that can be heated QUICKLY. It expands and moves and pushes fluid through a valve body engaging a set of clutch packs, if you will.

The '93-95 ZJ Grand will burn up the VC completely if you disconnect the front shaft and your stuck.

The '96-98 ZJ Grand is okay to run with out a shaft on the NV/NP 249 t-case.


On a site note, as memory serves, the '93-'95 was better for snow/ice/foul weather as the split front to rear was always about 60/40. The 96-98 had a bias more like 95/5.

When in low range, the '93'95 did not lock the front and rear drive shafts and slippage could occurr and cause you to fail on obstacles. This was evidenced on high mileage units or units where the VC (viscous coupling) was close to failing.

The 96-98 when 4-lo was selected would lock the front and rear drive shafts.

So, 93-95 better for foul weather driving.
96-98 better for off-road and more than adquate for foul weather.

If you have a V8, you most likely have the 249 full time 4WD. In rare cases, the 242 was used.

It was quite popular to swap a 231 or 242 into a the V8 grand cherokee to avoid the whole viscous coupling issue. However, watch out, some used a short input shaft and some used a long input shaft. Fairly easy to swap out, but can be daunting as you have to open up the t-case.

[BlackDiamondBound]

New Process or New Venture Gear, the company that makes the transfer cases did away with this type of VC in 1996

hence 96-98 is a different design which as you mentioned, can be ran without a front shaft

[in4low]

Without the front drive line you can select 4Hi and would not damage anything.

[CerOf]

Without the front drive line you can select 4Hi and would not damage anything.

Selecting 4-hi works perfectly, except that the NP/NV249 is a full time case. Only options are neutral low full time.

[Irishjeepman]

Yeah my last truck was a chevy k5 blazer sitting on 44s and the rear shaft snapped so I removed the rear shaft completely and just drive around in 4 wheel for a while...don't do that ever I ended up grinding out my slip yoak lmao

[in4low]

Yea at the most 200-300 miles to get it home