desertdreamer

I tried to attach the picture as an upload from my file system, not a hosted picture. eta: I realized that if I uploaded a pic that was less than 1mb it worked fine.

Hi, new member here from southeastern NM. Currently have a non running 96 Legacy L that I'm probably going to part out soon because I think we are moving again and we don't want to take a parts car cross country. Bought the Legacy from a former service member in GA and we got it because it was roomy enough in the back for our two dogs, one of which was a 180 lb Great Pyrenees. Anyway, that's my little bit of intro. D. PS: I tried to post a pic of my car but was forbidden. Guess I'm too new or something.

Thanks everyone. He removed the rear drive shaft and everything appears to be working again. desertdreamer

But why and what problem did it cause and how do we fix it?

Yes, it's an auto, AWD. Not sure what the problem is. I'll lay it all out from when it started on Tuesday and see what ya'll think. Had the two rear tires replaced (not the exact same size tires but almost). Took the car home and later that day drove about 1 mile to the store. Had to make 2 left hand turns and 3 right hand turns. After the first right hand turn I noticed the car felt bumpy, like driving over small rocks. On the next to last right hand turn, a sharp right, I noticed the car started pulling to the right. All the way back it was pulling a bit, not too bad, and felt kinda bumpy when first starting out. Yesterday we took a 50 mile round trip drive. I drove in and noticed it was pulling to the right. Had husband drive it home and about 20 miles from home heard a funky loud high pitch whine that appeared to come from the right rear tire. We stopped and he jacked it up and looked at it thinking that it was a bearing. He couldn't find anything wrong. We started off again and it appeared to be dragging like the rear brakes were sticking. We drove about 5 more miles, made a sharp right turn again and drove about 2 miles and it kept getting slower and slower and then we smelled something burning. We turned around and drove back those 2 miles and looked and both rear tires were smoking, it looked like brakes. We let it cool a little and tried again to go but it wouldn't get much over 30-40 mph. After finally realizing we couldn't drive it home we had someone come and trailer us home. We took it to the garage this morning for someone to check the brakes and they are fine. They looked at the rear differential fluid and it was about 1 knuckles worth full and smelled burnt so we assume the smoke was from the fluid getting hot yesterday. They drained and refilled the fluid and we brought it home. We had read online about the FWD fuse so we put one on there this morning and took it for a 4 mile drive and it drove perfect. We stopped, put the car in park but did not turn it off, and then when we got back on the road it was pulling to the right again. We checked the fuse and it wasn't blown but replaced it anyway. It didn't help this time. Also, the AT Oil Temp light had been coming on for just a few seconds when you turned the ignition on and now it comes on and blinks about 16 times before it goes off. That's the story with the car. We are at a loss as to what's actually wrong with it and don't know what to look at next. Husband is pretty good with tools and doing the work but just can't seem to get a handle on what to actually fix. He's already started taking the drive shaft out so I know he's at least going that far. Any help from ya'll would be most appreciated. desertdreamer

I thought I had read on one of the forums, not sure if it was here or somewhere else, that you could remove them but they were in parts and you had to make sure to remove a particular section to not lose your fluids. I'd really like to know if it will hurt the car to drive it without it in place. desertdreamer

Hi everyone, My first post here. I'm having a pretty big problem right now with my 96 Legacy but I'll start with one question. Can you still drive this if you remove the rear drive shaft? And if so, will it cause any long term damage? TIA, desertdreamer