CAUTION! AWD Front Drive Shaft Removal --Drifts in park. | Page 2 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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CAUTION! AWD Front Drive Shaft Removal --Drifts in park.

How many people use the parking brake 100% of the time, not many. The AWD viscous coupling may not be hurt by the front shaft being out, I don't think so.
 



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Thanks cdw621r, that's my thinking too! So if I would remove the frt shaft I still get 100% power to the rear wheels? I like awd but I don't need the extra wear on the tires and front drivline!
 






The jury is still out though on the viscous clutch surviving without the front shaft. Several people have had it out for a short time, but no one has reported consistently on the results, over a long time and lots of miles. So just know that you are another test subject.

The power isn't locked onto the rear shaft, which is why the truck will creep on hills in park. As long as the rear shaft isn't spun quicker than the viscous clutch can keep a hold of the front output shaft, that will not hurt the AWD. Be careful and watch it.
 






I am getting sick and tired of us not knowing exactly what is going inside of that AWD t-case. I should open mine up this winter and figure out how it works. I have been driving my sport without the front shaft and have not noticed any slipping. It is just as quick as before. I have a temp sender installed in my t-case at the drain plug location. With the full AWD system in place, I was seeing stable 150 degF on a long cruise at highway speeds. I have not driven without the shaft much for long periods, but I have not seen anything over about 110 degF in the t-case. If it was slipping I would expect to see it get warmer than it is. I will continue to monitor the temps when I drive. I expect the majority of slipping to occur during hard acceleration but I have honestly not noticed any issues.

When slip occurs, the front and rear output speeds would be different. It would be cool to somehow log the front and rear output speeds during a hard acceleration to determine how much slip (if any) is actually occurring.
 






Ditto Eric, I think the real difference to the AWD with or without the front shaft is small. We as strangers shouldn't make big assumptions and tell others that there is no harm if we aren't sure. I think having the rear shaft out would be a big mistake.
 






once i get the right driveshaft for the new transfer case in my ex, ill open up the awd case and report my findings since i havent had my front driveshaft in for over a year now. the only fun part is parking almost level so i dont have to reach in the back seat and grab out a brick to keep the ex from rolling since the darn parking brake wont hold the ex right now.
 






once i get the right driveshaft for the new transfer case in my ex, ill open up the awd case and report my findings since i havent had my front driveshaft in for over a year now. the only fun part is parking almost level so i dont have to reach in the back seat and grab out a brick to keep the ex from rolling since the darn parking brake wont hold the ex right now.

The parking brakes are just small drum brakes. They can be adjusted, but you have to remove the rotor really to do it. The pads are cheap, and most problems are from the cables, from lack of use. Try to use the parking brakes regularly, even if they don't help much. That keeps the cables from seizing up.
 






Ditto Eric, I think the real difference to the AWD with or without the front shaft is small. We as strangers shouldn't make big assumptions and tell others that there is no harm if we aren't sure. I think having the rear shaft out would be a big mistake.
And why do you think that?
The central differential will be fried by driving with ANY shaft removed since it will be initailly auto-locked by the vascous coupling heated. And after a while, yes, it will remain locked solid (when the fluid eventually fails), so when you install back the front shaft, you will have a tire-eating machine with no central differential.
 






No, the viscous liquid only reacts to a change from equal speeds. The front output parts of the TC weigh relatively little, the viscous coupling can easily maintain the speed of the front. If they weighed 50 pounds, that would be a problem.
 






I think you are wrong. Viscous fluid will react for sure to the missing 35% traction on front - it was designed to react to less than that (one tire spinning free only would engage it normally).
I don't think it was designed to hold that heat load indefinitely - driving without it for more that a few minutes, maybe hours, would eventually affect the fluid inside and lock that diferential for good.
That itself is not a problem - till you put back the front shaft...
 






I think you are wrong. Viscous fluid will react for sure to the missing 35% traction on front - it was designed to react to less than that (one tire spinning free only would engage it normally).
I don't think it was designed to hold that heat load indefinitely - driving without it for more that a few minutes, maybe hours, would eventually affect the fluid inside and lock that diferential for good.
That itself is not a problem - till you put back the front shaft...

There is no load if the front shaft is out what is spining a 2 pound weight?
Wow that would fry it? No if the front has small tires the coupling would have to slip to make up for the size but if there is no shaft there is no way it will slip it will just spin the shaft easy.
 






Well I guess we are going to find out pretty quickly. lol I am having the popping after driving long stretches at a time over 100 miles; and I cannot afford a new or used transfer case right now. So I am going to be removing the front drive shaft on my 96 5.0 awd this weekend. I will probably be putting about 500 to 1000 miles on it in the next week or so; I will try to keep posted here what happens.
 






Welcome, and just avoid WOT at any time. Keep under say 50% throttle or so, and it should do great.
 






What could be the consequences of more than 50% throttle, am I missing something not covered in all the threads I have read on here. Worst case scenario from what I am reading is the VC coupling permanently locks up making it a rear wheel drive vehicle; till the TC is replaced. Am I missing something? Thanks for the welcom.

____________________
Brian
96 5.0L AWD w/Bad TC lol
 






How about pulling the front driveshaft and doing some dyno pulls on a 2wd Chassis dyno?

Is this a bad idea for my transfer case?
 






What could be the consequences of more than 50% throttle, am I missing something not covered in all the threads I have read on here. Worst case scenario from what I am reading is the VC coupling permanently locks up making it a rear wheel drive vehicle; till the TC is replaced. Am I missing something? Thanks for the welcom.

____________________
Brian
96 5.0L AWD w/Bad TC lol

Welcome Brian, my point is that the viscous clutch is activated by an rpm difference. If either output shaft runs at a different speed, the fluid is heated as the clutch holds the two output shafts at the same speed.

With the front driveshaft out, the AWD has to hold the front output parts at the same speed. In normal use the weight of those front parts are easy to maintain their speed. Only near WOT would there be any real difference in speed of the front parts. When the clutch has to work to hold the speeds the same, that builds heat in the fluid. As we have stated, we don't think that small amount of heat made at those rare times will seriously hurt the viscous clutch. Meaning using WOT some is no big deal. Just don't hammer the gas over and over again. If the AWD does get too hot(the fluid), yes it will fail. Just don't overdo it, does that make sense?.
 






I beg to differ. Weight has nothing to do with how a differential works.
Resistent moment is what counts. And one of the shafts will have a huge resistent moment (back wheels that have to move the whole vehicle mass), the other will have quasi-zero.
In the first moment, that end (with zero load) will start to spin and that will heat the "jelly". In this time, the back differential will get zero traction, all the momentum/speed goes to the empty front socket. Only after the "jelly" solidifies, the back wheels will get the traction and car can move.

It is like a regular car with one of the wheels spinning on ice and other on pavement. Car won't move if the differential between wheels is not locked. The difference is that instead of wheels the AWD system has two other differentials, one for each axel.
 






I'd have to agree with sonic67, i've had mine remove now for 1 week and I have not noticed anything bad(but it feels better in sharp corners!)
 






Wrong again. The AWD is not a differential, and it has no differential in it. What idiot told you that there was a differential involved here?

The power goes directly to the rear output shaft, and the viscous clutch connects that to the front output shaft. If the front drive is running at the same speed as the rear, as in normal conditions, the fluid doesn't heat up and power is split evenly. Anytime one side spins faster than the other, that action forces fluid through restrictions in the clutch, which heats the fluid. The fluid resists any difference in speed of the two output shafts.

So without the front driveshaft, the fluid combined with the clutch components have to turn the front output shaft. It is not a differential, which splits power as much as possible. The AWD tries to do the opposite, it wants to equalize the power split.


This horse is dead, someone shoot it. Night,
 



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It is just a "fluid" clutch and not a differential?
I think it has a differential look to me, having planet carrier and sun gear (with a demultiplication and a fluid clutch in the middle):
Operation
Torque is transmitted through the input shaft to the planet carrier assembly. Torque flow continues through the gear ring to the rear output shaft. Torque also flows from the planet carrier assembly to the sun gear shaft, which is splined to the drive sprocket. The drive gear is connected to the driven sprocket by the drive chain. Torque continues through the driven sprocket to the front output shaft flange. The viscous clutch provides the connection between the gear ring and the sun gear shaft.
Description is from the manual and is exactly of a differential - only it has a demultiplication to the front shaft for inequal split of torque.

2912544936_3f5b2be142_o.jpg

2911696899_35726aebe3_o.jpg


How's your horse doing?
 
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