With the transfer case shifter in 2WD and tires on the ground and transmission in park, should I be able to turn the front driveshaft by hand?

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05 Silver KJ Limited CRD born July 11, 2005
'88 Suzuki Samurai 4x4
'99 1/2 Powerstroke 4 door Dually 4x4
Kubota B7200 Diesel 4x4
Polaris 700 and 500 H.O. 4x4

No

No. The front drive shaft is connected to the front wheels and they never unlock. That means when you drive, the shaft is always spinning even in 2WD.

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2005 Black KJ Sport CRD,
GDE Full Torque ECO TUNE, GDE Transmission ECO Tune,
Samco British Racing Green Hoses
Build Date 1/05
200k miles.
Original Owner

Not to hijack or anything......but in the conditions listed by the OP......will the front driveshaft have any movement to it when trying to turn by hand? The reason I ask is that with my Jeep in park and in 2wd if I crawl up under it and grab it with my hand I can actually turn it a bit before it stops. Not much mind you but it does turn a tad. A while back Geordie was in the area to do a timing belt job for someone and stopped by my place to have a look-see at my CRD and go over a few questions I had about it. I had pointed this out about the drive shaft (he actually checked out the driveshaft) and he didn't think there were any problems with it. It's hard to estimate how far it actually travels before stopping but I'd say it is somewhere in the range of 1/10th of a turn....maybe 1/8th.
As far as the boots and such on the driveshaft.....they are in good shape with no tears or anything and the 4wd works just fine (at least it did when I took it to the beach....hadn't had to use it since then). The front driveshaft has done this ever since I have been driving it (my wife had it when we met) and it did it before I had used the 4wd. Just trying to figure out if this is normal and if it's not what the problem could be.

Thanks, Jim

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Stock 06 CRD Limited
Timing belt replaced at 110,000 miles

Normal due to clearances between the ring&pinion and nothing holding it in place in the t-case while in 2wd.Anything over a 1/4 of of a turn would be bad,under is okay.

Thanks for the reply. There definately isn't anywhere near 1/4 turns worth of play. It's somewhere around 1/10th with an 1/8th at the very most. I appreciate the conformation that it's not an issue. That bit of free play had always bothered me a bit.

Thanks, Jim

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Stock 06 CRD Limited
Timing belt replaced at 110,000 miles

Even the turbo, the bearings of which are machined to VERY tight tolerances, there is a tiny amount of play. There has to be for there to be any possible movement of "things."

The bearings and gears of the differential and CV joints are not machined to anything like the tolerances of the turbo bearings. So what you describe doesn't sound to me excessive.