Drove long distance in without rear drive shaft

[mwmonsees]

98 k1500 5.7
all stock
295k

Drove 100+ miles at highway speeds without rear drive shaft. during drive, every 20 miles or so made clunking sound and stopped let cool down... then so on. (after replacing rear shaft) Now under load/stress (steep hill 4L, or 30+ mph in 4H) same clunking happens. sooo... what did I ruin. any help would be great.

 

[Hipster]

The transfer case

 

[Nad_Yvalhosert]

Impossible to hear it over the internets, but I'd agree: t-case. It has a mechanical oil pump, and without the rear slip shaft you likely drained it and ran it dry.
Captain Hindsight says "You shouldn't have"

 

[mwmonsees]

Thanks guys!

 

[Nordic Cowboy]

Should have used phone a friend. I would say that now is the time to upgrade the transfer case.

 

[gearheadE30]

If you ever have to do that again, find a way to put the slip yoke back in or pick up something you can cap it off with and make sure the fluid is full. As long as it has enough oil in it, it shouldn't be too big of a deal to do that in an emergency as long as you're gentle with it. Plenty of people do this if they trash a driveshaft off road, which it sounds like might be what happened here.