[gpelsise]

I drove 10,000 miles with the front drive shaft removed on a 1997 jeep grand cherokee Orvis V8 with the 249 transfer case.
Then I put the drive shaft back on and it has been fine for the last 30000 miles.
I had no rolling down the hill issues or problems.
Based on the above, first hand experience, I'm pretty confident in saying that it's fine at least on the 96-98 V8 grands.