Yes, the two designs will both work. The design change was with the slip yoke. Mine was removed when I got the truck as well. Turns out the pinion yoke had a broken off tap in it. Which means somebody broke a bolt off, drilled it out and then broke the tap off before giving up. Who knows why yours is off.
Try turning the front yoke with the hubs un locked. Lock in one side and see if the other side spins. Then do the same for the other side. Then lock them both and make sure it still doesn't spin. Do the same with the tcase. See if the output yoke will spin in 2wd and not spin in 4wd. Just trying to isolate that all you have is a missing drive shaft. If you turn up something else broken, an axle swap might be more cost effective. Swapping to something other than a stock axle will mean a different drive shaft. I hate to see you spend time and money getting something you end up not needing.