Never heard of or seen a dummy shaft on the front axle. You should have splines on both sides. If all of the splines had sheared off, you would have a large amount of debris behind your locking hub. Bad U-joints would make noise, like a clunk when you shift into gear or start to drive. The stock front differential is an open carrier. It only turns one wheel, just like an open carrier on the rear. The power transfer on an open carrier is most evident when you do a burn out - you only lay down rubber from one wheel. If you have no splines, and therefore no grip on the driver's side, you may have lost all traction for the axle. The only fix I can think of is to replace the shaft. That won't be too difficult if you can get a replacement from a wrecking yard. But the repair will take a bit of time because you will have to remove the CV axle and probably lower the front diff housing (after draining the gear oil, of course). The driver's shaft is held on by 4 bolts through the left-side hanger/mount. Just swap out the complete mount and shaft. I'm sure the bearings will be fine from the donor vehicle because the front axle gets so little use. Here's a pic of my front axle completely disassembled during a rebuild. The rusty looking bracket is the mount. It has a bearing pressed into it that is also pressed onto the long shaft you see (with splines and groove). That's the part you'll want to replace - as a unit. If your front drive worked before the bearing change and you have no bits of metal and signs of chipping off the shaft end, I can only suspect that the person/shop that did replaced the wheel bearings removed the splines. If the shaft is smooth or displays marks from a grinder, you definitely got screwed. Let us know if you need more help...

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