drive line truble

[Berepair]

Boy if that’s the case then he better not ever drive it in the snow with the 4x4 engaged, guaranteed to put more strain on it that way. But you have peaked my curiosity on what part will fail during this and why. What would be happening in that front diff that isn’t happening in the snow or sand or mud for that matter?

Just a point, in snow or mud there is torque to both axles.
In this situation all the torque is on only the front. The front axle may not be strong enough for continued use as a primary axle. But for a short period of “light” use it should be fine as long as it’s 4x4 high or lock not AWD.

 

[imp]

I believe he said 95.

I’m not familiar with the 95 4x4, but if there is a 4hi lock then the front can pull the truck.
If the rear yoke slips out of the transfer case then the chance of fluid loss could cause damage to the case. In a must do situation I would cover the tail shaft of the case with a coffee cup and wrap with plastic bag and duct tape or the like to limit fluid loss.
Then drive easy as all the power to pull the truck will be on the front axle.

AWD I believe have a limited slip style transfer case and damage could be done.
I’d recommend no on AWD.

Experts on the Explorer transfer case for this year would know better.

Older 3/4 tons that have fixed yokes on the transfer case output shafts can run with just one shaft front or rear.

Even had a customer with a heavy duty 4wheel drive bucket truck drive on the front shaft for a few weeks until the rear shaft could be repaired.

AWD provides power to the front wheels via a FLUID COUPLING, like a small torque converter. It provides that power ALL THE TIME, working to add to that of the REAR AXLE. Extremely hard usage of the AWD can overheat the Fluid Coupling, ESPECIALLY if the rear driveshaft is removed. This is why we are okay'ing it in an emergency, light usage.

 

[cujo2006]

The front diff is weak and boy I go way back. Not meaning offensive. that's going to put a lot if pressure to front wheels. Let's decide what breaks first cv? Half? Not including if he takes the rear there's that leak from tranny. Fry that fed its just my personal reccomadatiin. I fix those all day. 05 stay away. get a tow truck

I’m not even sure what any of that means, “leak from the tranny”? The whole paragraph is almost incomprehensible. But what I gathered is that they are weak. You say you fix them all the time then you should be able to say what breaks on them for you to call them weak. In my experience they are one of the stronger diffs in vehicles that size.
But I digress, I didn’t post what I posted to get in a battle of semantics with you. I posted what I posted to share the knowledge and experience I have from the multitude of Explorers I have owned and were very hard on. The front differential was the least of my concerns. In fact I drove my 97 with the same front diff for a week because of a rear drive shaft problem I had. I never had a problem with it and it lasted another 100k with a total of 250k on it when I sold it.
So back to the original question....... I would not even think twice to drive a well maintained Ex on the front drive line for a few miles. Probably wouldn’t tow with it tho!! Lol
I hope this helped rsw2008

 

[cujo2006]

AWD provides power to the front wheels via a FLUID COUPLING, like a small torque converter. It provides that power ALL THE TIME, working to add to that of the REAR AXLE. Extremely hard usage of the AWD can overheat the Fluid Coupling, ESPECIALLY if the rear driveshaft is removed. This is why we are okay'ing it in an emergency, light usage.

Agreed, I definitely would not recommend doing it on an AWD

 

[cujo2006]

Just a point, in snow or mud there is torque to both axles.
In this situation all the torque is on only the front. The front axle may not be strong enough for continued use as a primary axle. But for a short period of “light” use it should be fine as long as it’s 4x4 high or lock not AWD.

Right, I guess my point was that if it’s too fragile of a diff to take a short light drive on just the front axle then I would never trust it to get me out of some deep snow in 4x4. Even in an Ex there is more weight and traction on the front end vs the rear when it comes down to weight ratio.

 

[rsw2008]

Do you have the 4WD or 2WD? If you have the 4WD you can drive it a few miles but keep the speeds to a minimum. Remember, if it's 4WD and you're driving it on dry pavement you take the chance of messing up the transfercase.

it will not have the rear driveline installed so there wont be any binding and yes it is 4wd.do i have to run in 4wd low or 4wd auto?

 

[rsw2008]

Agreed, I definitely would not recommend doing it on an AWD

no its not awd that didnt come out till 96 or 97

 

[imp]

it will not have the rear driveline installed so there wont be any binding and yes it is 4wd.do i have to run in 4wd low or 4wd auto?

NOT 4WD AUTO!!! 4WD HIGH ONLY!