Unusual question about rear wheel bearings 1991 Wagon

[Jhill119]

This is my first post here but what i'm doing is so unorthodox search is getting me nowhere.

I have a 1991 2wd wagon, and i am swapping the rear knuckles to awd ones so I can correct the alignment with my lift. Eventually the car is going to be awd swapped but for now i just need to get the rear knuckles in so I can stop beating everything up so bad with the terrible angles i have on the struts right now.

So the actual question I have is, when I install the new knuckles on the rear, can i just run them with no axle or does the outer stub need to be in place? I don't know if the axle acts as some kind of bearing retainer or anything like that,

I just need to know if i need to locate some old axles and separate them at the outer joint and install them or if I can just leave them as-is and run them.

Any help is appreciated

 

[Ecmbuster]

Stubs need to be in place. If going towards AWD, both front and rear differential gear ratios need to match and requires the correct transmission with the related components.

 

[Jhill119]

Stubs need to be in place. If going towards AWD, both front and rear differential gear ratios need to match and requires the correct transmission with the related components.

Thanks for the info, I know everything needed for the swap, I just didn't know about this and since it's kind of unorthodox or maybe just plain stupid I couldn't find any info on it so I definitely appreciate the help.