A question about durability

I know this sounds a little newbish but i can't remember if when the durability of an item that you wear goes out does the magic part of the item still work. You see I found some used wartravs with 47% mf but they are eth and the durability is at 9 points left. If I can use these even if the durability fails then I can use them in mf runs. If not then I will be coming back here looking for some cheap wartravs. Somehow I think that's what i am going to be doing. Can any one hook me up with some? I am on USEast. ty