If the structure of the front wheel hubs is anything like as on the regular (S10) Blazers, the answer is no. I can't remember where but I'm pretty sure I read in a manual that doing so on my Blazer is never to be done. Besides, you'd get a hole bunch of gear oil coming out of the hole in the cover into which the axle is inserted in the differential that will then get all over your exhaust causing lots of smoke.

What is the noise you are hearing? Is it the sound of gears grinding? Have you been keeping up on the checking and the replacement of the gear oil in your differentials?

 

If he has the bolt on cv axles, there won't be any oil loss.

I've wondered the same, if removing them would make a difference. I have a hard time imagining the cv could really be doing much to hold the knuckle in. On 2wd vehicles with upper and lower control arms, there's no cv and the ball joints hold the knuckle on just fine.

 

Theres a YouTube video of a guy driving without one, he ruined the hub within miles of driving... and which led to other parts to start failing... now if you removed them and put 2wd spindles, maybe...

 

By at least 1999 on the Blazers, the bolt on axles were no longer used. I too had wondered running without the axles would be a problem but then I watched the following video.

The video is for brand D but the basics are the same I think:

 

If you were to destroy the CV axle and install just the splined and threaded shaft end into the hub and torque it down as normal on the center not, you won't have an issue with bearing failure. The spindle nut does keep the bearing assembly from coming apart, but only on the 4x4 with the bolt on bearing hub.

Then you have to worry about your diff dripping oil as mentioned already, but you can just drain it. And pull your front drive shaft out to keep the diff from just free spinning while dry.

 

Ah, OK. Thanks for the clarification, guys. Never thought about the hub bearing needing to have the splined part there. Makes a lot of sense when you think about it.

 

 

That is a good question because it brings up the original problem; the origin of the bad sound. You know all this discussion about these fixes makes me wonder if it would be worth it. Are you sure the front differential is bad? What is the noise you are hearing? Maybe the differential is ok and only needs a new output shaft bearing. From what side is the noise coming?

If like the other Blazers, if the noise is on the drivers side, then there is a cover that can be removed to expose an output bearing that can be replaced with the shaft seal being replaceable too. (I've done that repair.) I'm not so familiar with the other side but if it is on the passenger side, then it might be more likely that the differential itself is ok and it is the output shaft and its bearings what are bad. Also, and someone else could check this, but there is an engagement gear for the front axle on the passenger side that I could see slipping and grinding.

The way the front differentials work on the Blazers is that when 4wd is requested, two things happen. One is that the transfer case will engage directing power to the front axle. Two is that the right side output shaft is mechanically connected via a gear so that it is connected to the front differential. So to keep all the parts of the front differential and axle parts from spinning (and making noise) you will need to make sure no power is transferred to the front axle from the transfer case and to mechanically disconnect the front wheels from the axle. The absolute sure-fire way to do this is to remove the front drive-shaft and reinstall only the outer ends of the CV axles into the hubs. If you want to keep water and dirt out of the differential, you'll want to put only the inner end of the CV axles back into the front axle.