Anyone remove the rear drive shaft and drive in 4HI to break in a front Diff?
 

So i have new front and rear diffs and breaking in the rear isn’t so bad but the front will be. You’re supposed to drive for 20mins then wait till it’s totally cool, then drive 500kms and finally change the fluid before doing anything hard on the diff.
So not to bad for the rear except the front driving 500kms on a gravel road in 4hi would put unnecessary wear on all kinds of things. So my idea is to pull the rear portion of my rear driveshaft (i have a 92SR5 pickup) and then drive it in 4hi on the street as though it was a front wheel drive vehicle. Does anyone see any problems with doing this? I couldn’t find any information on people doing this but it seems like the best way to break a front diff in properly.
I did read that people swap the diffs front to rear but i can’t because i have a high pinion in the front so if i moved it to the back it would be running on the wrong side of the gears.

sounds like it would work to me. just make sure you mark the bolt holes on your driveshaft so they line up correctly when reinstalling. if not it will be unbalanced.

Good idea, i probably would have forgotten that. Im pretty sure you just phase the ujoints properly but if i mark it then i dont have to think about it.

It surprised me that more people wouldnt do this over swapping diffs. Because 8 bolts for the shaft as opposed to pulling 4 axles, wheel bearings, etc, etc is way easier. Unless they do and i just couldnt find the info.

Uhhhh... No...
You don't need to make sure that it gets put back in the same holes on the pinion. If you happen to need to SEPERATE thed rear driveline, at the slip joint, then make sure you mark it.

Otherwise, it doesnt matter how the driveline is bolted to the flange.