Thread: D1 no drive unless CDL engaged

Broken axle would be my bet

Problem is in the front axle,Locking the CDL equals the drive front to rear.
Do the early Discos have removable driven members on the hubs like Series/Defenders???? If so the splines may be worn.
If not one needs to check the axles and CV joints.
GOODLUCK
Andrew

When you say diffs locked do you mean centre diff or f&r diff locks
I bet its the diff as in standard form they are as weak as butter

As mentioned above. Front axle or cv.

I'm curious, if the front diff was busted, why wouldn't the rear diff provide the drive to move the car? Haven't people driven these cars with the front or rear shafts removed before?

Originally Posted by SeanP

I'm curious, if the front diff was busted, why wouldn't the rear diff provide the drive to move the car? Haven't people driven these cars with the front or rear shafts before?

Yes with the CDL locked.

Originally Posted by SeanP

I'm curious, if the front diff was busted, why wouldn't the rear diff provide the drive to move the car? Haven't people driven these cars with the front or rear shafts before?

I'm assuming the OP addressed this by engaging the diff lock
on the transfer case lever.

Originally Posted by SeanP

I'm curious, if the front diff was busted, why wouldn't the rear diff provide the drive to move the car? Haven't people driven these cars with the front or rear shafts before?

Because the centre diff will split the torque equally front and rear. With something broken in the front, it takes almost no torque to turn the front propshaft. So the rear propshaft gets the same torque (almost none) which won't drive the car.

Locking the centre diff forces the front and rear propshafts to turn at the same speed, which allows torque to go to the rear diff.