yes you should be able to do that see if that works before u buy a trans

 

Holy moley, it worked! Removed front drive shaft, locked the CDL & now I move with ease in both directions!!! So I guess that means the broken part is in the front axle, but why didn't the T-case disengage from the locked position? It appears to be locking & unlocking fine now... albeit without the front drive shaft.

 

the stress from whatever was was broken was binding the front axle when you were trying to go foward.two things now check the front drive shaft and if it is ok then you need to pull the axles and see what happened in there so do that and get back to us asap.try not to drive it too much because u dont know if somthing came apart in the front diff if it did then its prob not the best idea to drive it until you get it fixed.Whatever the problem its better than replacing the trans

 

Yeah, but I wonder what was preventing my T-case from unlocking, which is what caused the breakage?

Other than a broken grease zert, the drive shaft looks great. must be time to start tearing into the axle... I hate the smell of gear oil!

 

well if it works ok now it might have just been stuck make sure u lube it good when ur under there and good luck.i hate gear oil too smells like a girl i used to know lol!!!

 

Yeah, and that smell won't wash off, it takes days for it to wear off. I wear really old clothes when I work on mine, and throw them away when I finish!

Be sure and let us know what you find next. Take pics of the bad or damaged items, so we can all see it.

 

Very interesting stuff here!! And the saga continues......