can you drive with them out? my front pinion bearings and universals in the axles are bad. it is my daily driver and really dont have the time to do it all in one day. i was going to pull the axles out and replace the joints while i can still drive it.

 

I wouldnt imagine so, considering the axle hub nut connects to them....and rolling around on that hub with no nut I would imagine it to cause some damage to it at the VERY least.

 

i figured it just held the axle in place but i wasnt sure.

 

No...they help keep the bearing (hub) on too...gotta take it off to get the hub off......Ive heard of many (and seen) front hub bearings fail due to loose hub nuts. I would just imagine it would be 10x worse without it.

Also i suppose its vise versa, putting that nut on too tight, has an effect on the bearings too...

Since were at it, when you get to the install its 175 ft-lbs for torque specs!

 

remove the axles at the ujoints and leave the stubs in the hub

 

x2 i hvae a buddy that used 4wd hubs on a 2wd front dummy axle by doing that exact thing.... works out.... except for the gaping hole in your axle tube that is now completely open to the elements.... you deffinitely need to cover that axle tube up before getting to carried away with it

 

Def use the stubs otherwise the unit bearing will seperate and your wheels will fall off. Saw it happen on the trail, funny as s@*%.

 

dont forget that on top of everything else without shafts all the lude will run out past the seals

 

i will just take the end of the axle off where it bolts into hub and bolt that back together for now. i just want my pinion to stop spinning till i can get the time to do the bearings. thanks for the help...

 

you have to leave your stub shafts in your hubs as mentioned, then just stuff a rag in the end of the axle tube so it contains your gear oil.
don't leave a broken shaft flopping around in the axle tube either, it'll take out your axle seals too.

 

You definitely don't want to drive around without the axles/stubs in...I saw a guy make that mistake a while back, it doesn't take long for the wheel to come off.

 

i'm gooing to put the stubs back in without the axles until i can get around to rebuilding the front pinion. i just rebuilt the rear about a month and a half ago. lol