I need a clear answer on if its safe to drive without drive shaft

[masospaghetti]

i agree, but is this damaging to the VC? i thought the damage occurred because of a difference in front/rear speed. like when having tires that are a different size.

The front basically "goes along for the ride" and spins at the same speed as the rear. There's no force being imposed on the VC through the front shaft. This is different than having different size tires, where the front is being driven at a different speed than the rear.

 

[JakePSD]

What he said /\

With different tires sizes the front and rear are being forced to travel different speeds. With nothing connected to the front output the only resistance would be that of the air around it, which I highly doubt is gonna be even measurable, let alone put any noticeable resistance on the output. There would be more resistance with it attached to the front wheels than that just due to uneven tires. Unless your tires are brand new they will always be, even slightly, different sizes. Even 1/16" of tire size difference due to natural wear would put more resistance on the front output than air.

 

[jt45205]

OH, and if its possible to drive without front driveshaft, all this is doing is disabling my 4WD, correct?

you can drive without the front 4X4 drive shaft: however it will change the way your steering feels and acts
1: if you have auto 4X4 high my 2008 explorer uses it in cornering allowing for a lot more control in turns you will notice the difference
2: if you have AWD you might be front wheel drive and if you take the shaft off no go
3: if you have a 2W selection you are good to go

now you are correct all you are doing is disconnecting not disabling the 4WD
if you have the 4X4 high auto or the 4X4 high you can drive it home but the steering will be quite loose but it will go braking was a little different too

remember the computer reads the speed sensors so in a turn it will try to compensate for that it might light the skid light but once you are straight it is ok
the skid light will light over water ice snow some bumps etc

its not a good idea but it can get you home if you intend to drive it that way for a while i would not recommend that
the front shaft is over 250 but 6 bolt in back 4 in front comes off and goes back easy as long as the front differential yoke is not damaged
if the klonk you are hearing is in the rear of the shaft replace it as soon as you can because if the rear u-joint goes it will twist the front u-joint bolt and sheer them off

i know because i had that klonk thought it was the rear drive shaft it wasn't the front rear u-joint went and twisted u-joint bracket and sheered the bolts off in the yoke ....... happened a few days ago during our artic weather about a mile and a half from tire fixer repair shop ... when they saw it they refused to do the work .... with good reason there is another thread on here about that but basically the pinion bearing is preloaded removing the yoke disturbs that preload so the yoke to pinion must go back exactly as it was and there is no torque for that only rotational preload on the bearing.... meaning number of turns ... so the nut has to be put back exactly as it was no a degree more or less on the pinion nut. just pointing that out hopefully its just the rear only took 30 minutes to take it off.

still dealing with the yoke will try drilling and extracting the sheered bolt all 4 of them

 

[410Fortune]

Ummm back in 2014 the op was gonna drive with no REAR driveshaft because his centering ball in his rear cardan joint was jacked