As long as you can stop the front tires from spinning while up in the air when you kick the awd off,sounds like it's working ok. Post or tree will usually work fine. Better if the rear tires are in gravel or loose ground and able to slip to enable the fronts to kick in,but you can usually find someplace you can test it out.

 

If you can stop the front from turning at all especially with minimal effort your awd isn't engaged. They will rotate with the axle rotation but will not kick into awd unless the armature is energized. I had a shorted wire in on the strut where it was held by a zip tie. Melted the wires together grounding both wires. Result no lock up. Fixed the wires and I now have awd.

 

Mines a Polaris xplorer 400