4 Wheel to 2 wheel

[Nocturnall]

So I asked around about swapping out my 4 wheel drive and just going 2 wheel drive for lift and gas milage improvement. Can I just remove the cv shaft and leave the stub axle in the hub to keep it secured for now till I can get lift spindles to replace the 4 wheel drive hubs?

 

[IZwack]

Its do-able but I dont think you'll see much improvement in gas mileage by removing the front driveshaft. And any positive gains in MPG would severely be offseted by the lift -- I mean the higher you are off the ground, the greater drag you will have. Keep it loowwww

 

[Nocturnall]

I only wanna go up a few inches and I would go low but my boss just paid to have new tires installed on my truck so lowering is out of the question. Front drive shaft is out, I just want the weight outta my truck.

 

[IZwack]

Here's an idea that would allow one to completely remove the front diff and CV axle shafts:

The problem with removing the CV shafts is that the unitary bearing assembly can not hold itself together and the CV shaft's purpose, besides driving the front wheels in 4wd, is to sandwich the halves of the bearing assembly together and prevent it from falling apart. Well, the idea, which popped into mind a few years ago when I still had IFS, is to use a large bolt (large as in whatever max size will fit through the bearing assembly's center hole) and two sections of a steel cylinder turned on a lathe to basically make tow thick washers (thick as in maybe at least 0.25" thick) -- and then use the bolt and an accompanying locking-type nut to keep the bearing from coming apart.

This is just an idea (by a wannabe off-roader - who you shouldn't trust) and by no means should anyone try it w/o further investigation and measurements. An easier solution might to swap over some 2wd knuckles and outers

 

[Nocturnall]

That's the long term plan but I'm impatient and I wanna get this stuff out now.