So I was searching around the forum and came across a thread for the vacuum disconnect for the Dana 30 front axle... Cruiser referenced this link

http://comancheclub.com/topic/17377-cad-fix-1/

First thing I thought was weird was that nothing was hooked up to my cover like the link shows, so I thought maybe the PO already did this. I began to take the cover and found some issues... enough talking, a picture says a thousand words, so here are few thousand words...








So I'm at a complete loss of words... and not even sure what to ask?

 

Looks like someone replaced the two piece axle with a full length one and instead of making a blank off plate to put where the disco went, they just broke off the fork that was no longer needed.

 

Is this a good thing/bad thing? Pros Cons?

 

I did it on my old axle. Gotta pull the carrier though to install the seal or else you'll be leaking lot of oil out of the right wheel.

 

That's funny you mention that cause there is a small leak at the wheel, I think the seal is bad.

So is a one piece axle better than a two piece?

 

It would be stronger than a two piece held together with the sliding coupler when in 4x4. The one piece replacement is probably preferred over just locking the coupler into place. I think this makes it the same as the axle on the newer models that don't have the disconnect.

 

Ah, gotchya. Thanks for the all the info!