4wd front driveshaft spins freely

I was greesing the drive train on my 2014 4wd when I noticed that I can spin the front driveshaft by hand. This is with the vehicle parked and in 2wd. I understand this is normal.

I'm wondering if the front drive shaft spins or is stationary when I'm driving in 2wd? Is there something in the front diff that decouples the drive shaft from the CV joints?

 

My turd gen spins in 2wd too. Before greasing mine my friend went underneath so I could move it SLOWLY to get to the zerks but yeah it spins freely even in 2wd.

 

yup, if it's not engaged in 4WD it should spin freely. Makes greasing a lot easy too

 

If the truck is not in 4wd, the front shaft will spin by hand...if you put it in 4wd, it will not spin.

 

Yea, but if spins freely, something must be in that front end disconnecting the CV axels from the drive train, right? I can spin the shaft and the wheels are on the ground.

I'm wondering what the mechanism is to do this in the front end. I understand how a transfer case works, but I didn't know the front end had something in it too.

 

The ADD - automatic differential disconnect

 

to elaborate, the ADD decouples the passenger side front driveline between the diff and inner CV

 

Ah, after googleing for the "Toyota Automatic Differenetial Disconnect", I see now what is going on.

So I'm correct to assume the front propeller shaft doesn't rotate much when driving the vehicle is not in 4wd?