Continuing upon the older thread on AWD vibration: Town & Country AWD vibration - Chrysler Forum - Chrysler Enthusiast Forums

In my case there is also hum coming out of the rear diff and fixing it up is not an option for me. So I have taken my propeller shaft off -- drives much smoother now, and I would like to finish the AWD -> FWD conversion: remove rear diff, shafts (leave outers bolted to the hubs of cause). And then I found a similar question online: http://www.justanswer.com/chrysler/1...r-case-it.html where it was also said "You would need a drive axle for a regular front wheel drive and an extension housing off of a FWD trans as well.". why bother? why can't I just cut output flange/pinion off, and be done? (I don't care if it still spins)

any ideas?

 

ah -- looking at diagram of the transfer unit I saw that output shaft is actually a two piece construct with pinion shaft sliding into the hollow output shaft+flange and locked then at the end with the nut (I thought the nut is just to keep flange in place on a solid output shaft).

so the question would be -- couldn't I take the rear cover off, remove entire output assembly (pinion + shaft), seal the hole in the cover and put it back on. I.e. would it be ok to remove the output pinion or it must load the gear and/or used to transfer to any other geat (not clear from the diagram) -- does any one know?