Hate to argue, too, but the first thing I have to ask is what is the reasoning behind taking a 4WD vehicle and turning it into a 2WD to go offroading? Just seems backwards to me....

Second... Have you looked closely at the front hub assembly in THIS vehicle? I have, and I'm telling you that if it doesn't have those CV shafts with the big, beefy nuts installed, and the bearing fails, there is no safety left. There's nothing else that will keep that front wheel from simply falling right off when the bearing fails. And my gut feeling is that the bearing is going to fail very quickly given that it was designed to operate with things that are now missing....

If she was building an off-roader for playing around in muddy corn fields, I'd say go for it, give it a shot. If this is going to be a daily driver on city streets and public highways, no, it's WAY too risky.

 

The junk trucks and cars we get sometimes have a blow front diff. or the transfer case 4WD gearing was messed up so we just rip the front driveline out and have some fun. 2WD is plenty for getting speed on dirt roads and jumping, no serious mud. We had a 95 dakota we did this with too, drove it on the streets for years without problems as well as beat it up on the fields, the wheel bearings never failed. I've had my front end apart on my D plenty times and after looking everything over, I don't see any risk in removing a cv axel from the wheel bearing.

Anyways the nut just holds the cv axel on the wheel hub, if the bearing were to fail and come apart it might even rip the cv axel apart at the slip joint if there was enough force. I've never seen a wheel bearing fail to the point it seperated completely from both races, you'd notice it long before that happened. If it were to happen, the cv axel will probably catch the wheel from just snapping completely off but a bearing failing like that is next to impossible. The cv axel does nothing to hold the wheel up straight or lighten the load on the wheel bearing, it's just there going along for the ride.

I understand and respect everyone's concerns, and do not wish to argue here.

 

You will never get a definitive answer on this thread because opinions on this topic are like a##holes... everyone has one!
Here's what you really need to consider: How much faith do you have in those 3 stubby bolts that mount the wheel bearing hubs? Most of the fears listed in this thread are basically consequences of the bolts breaking or vibrating loose under the increased stress.

 

Well the bolts coming loose is only one part of the equation. The bolts and axle coming loose at highway speeds with other motorists on the roadway and causing at minimum property damage.......injury or death to themselves/family and or other innocent motorists. I want to stress the phrase " OTHER INNOCENT MOTORISTS" and the keywords FAMILY and DEATH.

 

Haha nice analogy there. Just for the sake of making everyone happy on this thread, don't do it. I was just laying everything out, but I'm not going to rant on about it.

There are a lot of things that could snap on the front end of these trucks if they aren't maintained and inspected like ball joints and wheel hub bolts, I've even seen a knuckle get snapped in half on an s10 once from stress. Once that tire catches under the frame at highway speeds, you'll have yourself one awesome hollywood stunt and a rolled over car for sure.

Looks like the OP is just sitting this one out or waiting for the tension to go down haha, but deffinatly curious as to what's going on. If you want the job done right and for it to last a while I'd get a rebuild done, either on your original diff. or a salvage yard one. If you just want something to get you through using 4WD in the winters, a salvage yard diff. without a rebuild should be plenty good, just check for play in the gearing, the front diffs. are always much tighter than the rear so it shouldn't have much play in it.

 

At least were all mature around here. Like I said, never done it before and I would be scared to drive it like that.

I have nothing to worry about though because mines 2WD whether I like it or not!!

 

Ha well you're down in florida there where you guys rarely get snow, in that case you got your RAM to use one those days. Either way I keep mine NV242 in AWD untill the guy next to me at a red light want to race, then I pray it goes in 2WD for some smokey burnouts haha, but usually it doesn't.

 

Noob here so if I am off base ignore me, but would it be possible to remove internals from the diff, and maintain the integrity of everything else, so that L+R are not driven ?

 

As long as you keep the diff. bearings for the cv axels and the cv axels connected on both ends, then you'd be up to code for this thread haha. You can remove the front driveshaft too while you're at it. But yes I don't see a problem with it, but I don't see why anyone would want to do that though.

 

Yep my Ram does have plenty o traction. People ask me if it's 4WD I say yep, ALL FOUR WHEELS IN THE BACK YEE HAW!! LOL