I have a faint rotational knock sound coming from what appears to the the rear of my 2004. The front driveshaft is fairly new and an inspection of the u joints does not show any concern. Nor does the u joint on the rear driveshaft, everything seems tight. I have a newer rear driveshaft flex coupling and all is tight. Rear brakes are totally new, discs, pads, calipers and hoses. There is no lateral slop in the rear wheels when up on jack stands.
The 3 bolt rear driveshaft is unavailable, otherwise I would just replace it as a matter of course. I don't want to buy the rear shaft conversion unless I know for sure that is the problem.
My question is can I remove the rear driveshaft and drive the vehicle to eliminate that as a cause of the noise?

 

Yes, you should be able to do so with a 2004 as it has the factory Center Diff Lock option. You will have to pop your drivestrain in CDL mode first. This will provide (equal) drive to both the front and rear axles, remove rear driveshaft, and still have power to the front axle.

 

UPDATE;
I decided to remove the rear wheels and check everything for tightness before messing with the driveshaft. I found the aluminum wheel spacer securing nuts were ever so loose. Not dangerously loose, but all of the securing nuts took to some tightening. The noise seems to have gone away.
so…Check those spacers if you’ve got them. 🙂

 

Any amount loose is dangerously loose. I'd pull those spacers off and just confirm there are no cracks starting. With wheel spacers you really should use a torque wrench to get them torqued to spec, and some loctite on the studs isn't a bad idea.

 

Sounds like a good idea. I guess for a torque spec I should just use what a wheel lug nut should be. 👍