Drive shaft detection for pump or motor protection

A method of operating a vehicle involves entering a drive shaft test mode, receiving a command to position a yoke to drive the shaft, regulating the shaft speed so as to be below a predefined threshold, and determining whether a drive shaft is available based on whether an actual drive shaft speed is detected above the predefined threshold. When the detected actual drive shaft speed is above the predefined threshold, it is determined that the drive shaft is not available and the vehicle is disabled to prevent damage to the vehicle. When the detected actual drive shaft speed is not above the predefined threshold, it is determined that the drive shaft is available, and the vehicle may be operated as is typical. The methods may be performed by a controller (32) executing program code stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium (40).