Front locker questions

[SierraBronco]

Pretty sure I broke the intermediate shaft on the passenger side and then stripped the splines after digging a little deeper. Thanks for all the help everyone!

This was the concern in our build running 29spline RCV’s. The shafts are warrantied for 40’s, but there isn’t a way to upgrade the intermediate shaft. Only a bandaid housing which may or may not provide any benefit. Bit the bullet and went 32 spline spicer to strengthen everything

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[Alanp970]

The front differential is on the driver's side of the vehicle. The driver's front CV axle plugs more or less directly into the differential side gear. But the passenger side needs an intermediate shaft to close the gap between the CV axle on the passenger side and the side gear on the differential.

It sounds like @Ralphramst broke (or rounded off) the splines that connects the driver's CV axle to the wheel hub. That would have prevented power to the driver's front axle, but it explains nothing about the passenger side. But he also stripped the spines on the intermediate shaft, which explains why the passenger side wasn't spinning either.

Either way... when you strip splines like that, it typically will spin just fine as long as the wheels are off the ground—there still is enough friction left to spin the tires. But once you put the wheels on the ground and put some actual load through the CVs it would have started skipping splines, and no torque would have been delivered.

I agree with all this but in the OP’s post he said “Front axles would turn but no torque to ground” IF this was actually happening there would be a problem further outward of the FDU. Realistically both front axles probably weren’t turning unless like you mentioned maybe he was high centered and with the tires off the ground it had enough friction to turn the tires and that’s a different story than “no torque to ground”

 

[HoosierDaddy]

but maybe it's just the resolution on the photo.

"enhanced" LOL

It appears to me , the one on the left ate the splines pretty hard.
The right one , might just be crud or resolution issues, hard to tell with that one.

 

[Brian_B]

"enhanced" LOL

Haha yup there you can see it clear on the left

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