desertdreamer Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoahDL88 Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 Transmission fluid will leak out and you won't go anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnceggleston Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 on an auto trans you can remove the rear section of drive shaft. leave the front section in place so fluid does not leak out. and you can drive it as a front wheel drive car for ever. my son's 95 has been this way for about 40k miles. what's wrong with your trans? is it an auto? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertdreamer Posted June 2, 2011 Author Share Posted June 2, 2011 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertdreamer Posted June 2, 2011 Author Share Posted June 2, 2011 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoahDL88 Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 Had the two rear tires replaced (not the exact same size tires but almost). That's your problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertdreamer Posted June 2, 2011 Author Share Posted June 2, 2011 That's your problem But why and what problem did it cause and how do we fix it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnceggleston Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 (edited) subaru AWD cars need the tires to all be the same size or you get torque bind. go buy 2 more tires and you will be fine. if you wait too long the new tiresyou buy will be larger than the worn 2 you have already bought. a life time of reading on torque bind: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/search.php?searchid=1273423 Edited June 2, 2011 by johnceggleston Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertdreamer Posted June 2, 2011 Author Share Posted June 2, 2011 Thanks everyone. He removed the rear drive shaft and everything appears to be working again. desertdreamer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaxP Posted June 14, 2015 Share Posted June 14, 2015 Hi desertdreamer, I know this thread is old, but I was wondering if you still had your 1996 Subaru Legacy, and if you were still driving it as a FWD car? If so, has there been any problems from doing that? Johnceggleston, I know you said that if you leave the front section of the drive shaft in place to prevent fluid from leaking out, that it works fine as a FWD. Is there definitely no negative repercussions? And does that apply to all of the Subaru models, or is it only automatic Legacies of this generation (second generation)? The reason I'm asking is because I'm hoping to do the same with a second generation Impreza - take out the drive shaft, or at least part of it to make it FWD. Thank in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnceggleston Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 all auto trans 90 - 99. why do you want your impreza to be FWD? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaxP Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 Hi johnceggleston, Thanks for the quick reply! I thought asking this question might prompt a question like that. I am hoping to convert a gasoline car to a plug-in hybrid car. My initial idea was that I would take a FWD car, leave the front end as is, and then modify the rear end to allow me to put in an electric motor, transmission, controller, battery pack, etc. to have the rear axle electrically powered. I would then just use one drive method at a time (electric for short city driving, ICE for longer trips), by putting the other transmission into neutral (and not turning on the ICE when using electric). Cutting up the back of a FWD car, and putting drive axles into wheels that weren't intended for drive axles sounded like a pain in the neck though. That's why I'm now thinking I'll take an AWD car, remove the drive shaft and rear diff, and put the motor, transmission, etc. in. I think some people will think that I'm ruining a perfectly good Impreza if I do this, but it sounds easier to do it this way than the other way. Thanks, Max. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaxP Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 (edited) Also, are there any models newer than 1999 that can have the drive shaft removed and still work ok? And is the reason that the manual models won't work because they use a viscous coupling center differential to couple the transmission to the drive shaft going to the rear differential? What do the automatic models from 1990 to 1999 use? Is it electronic based? Thanks again! Max. Edited June 15, 2015 by MaxP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nvu Posted June 16, 2015 Share Posted June 16, 2015 You could convert a 5mt to 2wd by replacing the center diff with a spool lock. VW guys have been doing this for years. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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