Driving w/out front drive shaft (1 Viewer)

I recently had to replace the front u-joints of my '97. It later occured to me: If I had been away from town and those u-joints gave out, could I have disconnected the front drive shaft and driven home with only rear power. If not, would a center diff lock allow me to do this?

The CDL would have allowed you to get home in 2WD...C-Dan has posted "emergency" directions on how to lock the CD if you don't have the button.

I've read posts of guys trying this to get twice the gas mileage

if i rememeber it right, even the guys who added manual hubs were only seeing around 10 percent increase in gas milage.
i recently ran without a front shaft when i replaced the u-joints. due to a lack of a vise and proper tools( i was far away from home ), it took me awhile to get it done. i had done the CDL so i simply kept the middle locked up. the only draw back to the way i did the CDL switch is that everytime one of my friends has to drive the cruiser, i have to give the lecture about why they are not allowed to hit the hazard lights unless they are stuck real good.