drive flange removal for towing?

Well, seeing as though a willys + car hauler is too heavy for a cherokee to tow I'm looking at flat towing my newest toy home. From looking over parts and manuals I can see that the willys has dana 23 and 25 axles. Being that the 23 is a full floater and the 25 is essentially the same design (in that they both can be disconnected from the differential) what are the drawbacks of removing the drive flanges to keep the differentials from rotating while driving? The only thing spinning would be the wheel bearings, correct? And the hubs would still be secured down to the spindle?

If there is a huge downside to this I can't really think of it now. Just replace the wheel bearings with new units, cover up the flanges somehow, and call it good for the trip home, right?

 

I think you can just pull the 23 axles out after you remove the flanges on the rear. Then replace the flanges to keep the bearings clean. On the front, you may want to find a set of lockout hubs to keep the outer shafts in-place. Just removing the drive flange may put some extra loading on the spindle bushing and you will still need something over there to keep the crap out. Those will likely be bendix or rzeppa axle shafts so the end play is probably not an issue (no snap ring as on the spicers).

 

The rear flange is part of the shaft, no separate drive flange. You can pull the axle shafts and if it's a short distance cover them up with duct tape or something similar or install some drive flanges. We did that in a pinch once and it worked. I'd put some covers or drive flanges bolted on if going very far though.
You could do something similar on the front. You could get some worn out or cheap drive flanges for the front, cut out the splined area, then bolt back on with covers. The only thing turning would be the wheel bearings, hubs, and brake drums that way.

 

they do it all the time on new road tractors, just cover it up to keep dirt water etc out of the bearings, ideal setup would be lockout hubs on all 4 corners

 

I didn't know that they used Dane 23's or 25's for the rear end. I thought that they were only used in the front.

 

MB's, GPW's, and very early CJ-2a's used the 23-2 rear end which is basically a non-steering full floating version of the 25. Got one sitting at work in pieces right now.

 

Got one sitting at work in pieces right now.[/QUOTE]

Need another for parts?

 

Need another for parts?[/QUOTE]

NO

This one actually belongs to a student. I'm kind of helping him out with it. Came from a '45 2a. He's swapped to a 44 rear but we're putting this back together so he can try and get a few bucks from the front and rear.

 

How far are you towing it?