06 Saab AWD front diff disable - long term **UPDATE**

SkydiveAL

Member
Jan 1, 2020
5
Madison, AL
Add me and my Saab to the RWD-only club. It took about 8 hours including a couple of trips to the auto parts store to pull the front axles, get the rotors turned and do a full brake job. That was in the driveway on jack stands for all the neighbors to see. They hate all of my cars and trucks, 8 total, but with 6 drivers in the house, that's just the way it is.

Total work done required:
1) Pull the front drive shaft (rear steering crossmember has to come out to make clearance)
2) Pull the both wheel axles (no stubs left in the hubs)
3) Unplug the TC encoder motor
4) Remove fuse #8 from the fuse box under the hood. We got the location from the owner's manual.

The seal on the driver's side axle had totally disintegrated and whatever bearing is on the other side of the seal didn't look so good either. I would have rather fixed the front differential but we needed to get this truck back on the road and disabling the front drive seemed the expedient thing to do.

Many thanks to Berns, Mooseman, Sparky and others for the information and encouragement.

HizAndHerz, since you pulled the drive shaft what did you do at the TC?

I just had the EXACT thing happen to my front differential, blew that bearing up. I don't care about the AWD here in Alabama so I am all for saving some money and just removing everything from the drive shaft forward. I already have everything removed (Removed oil pan to replace gasket too). Bu I haven't removed the shaft yet, just doing research first and hope to get to it next week. Mine is a 2006 SAAB 97X with 5.3L

20200101_133712.jpg
 

Mooseman

Moderator
Dec 4, 2011
25,257
Ottawa, ON
This thread is a bit dated and unless you use @ in front of his user name, @HizAndHerz might not know you posted to this thread, especially since he hasn't been on the forum since Feb. 2019.

From my own experience. The TC stays in place. I removed the axles and front drive shaft and I get no errors. I think I left the fuse in so if I do get rear wheel slip, the TC goes into AWD but spins into nothing with no drive shaft. Whether you pull the fuse or not, you still have to service the TC every 50k miles (80k km) as the internals still need to be lubed.

Only thing different for me is that I didn't have to disconnect the steering shaft to pull the drive shaft. I also put some Gatorade caps in the diff because it's still good. I thought I had issues with it but turned out to be a noisy wheel hub. I don't miss it. Fuel savings is negligible.
 

HARDTRAILZ

Moderator
Nov 18, 2011
49,665
I did not remove steering shaft to remove front driveshaft either.
 

SkydiveAL

Member
Jan 1, 2020
5
Madison, AL
This thread is a bit dated and unless you use @ in front of his user name, @HizAndHerz might not know you posted to this thread, especially since he hasn't been on the forum since Feb. 2019.

From my own experience. The TC stays in place. I removed the axles and front drive shaft and I get no errors. I think I left the fuse in so if I do get rear wheel slip, the TC goes into AWD but spins into nothing with no drive shaft. Whether you pull the fuse or not, you still have to service the TC every 50k miles (80k km) as the internals still need to be lubed.

Only thing different for me is that I didn't have to disconnect the steering shaft to pull the drive shaft. I also put some Gatorade caps in the diff because it's still good. I thought I had issues with it but turned out to be a noisy wheel hub. I don't miss it. Fuel savings is negligible.


Excellent, thank you... was so happy to find this post, taking the rest out this week and moving on 😁
 

SkydiveAL

Member
Jan 1, 2020
5
Madison, AL
@Mooseman

Wanted to say thanks.. I am now also a member of the RWD club, and all works great with no lights on dash. I just removed everything, the Differential, the carrier, both CV joints and the drive shaft. Was an easy fix really and no worse for the wear, save myself a few $$ for sure.
 
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Mooseman

Moderator
Dec 4, 2011
25,257
Ottawa, ON
Great. How did you get the diff out?
 
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Mooseman

Moderator
Dec 4, 2011
25,257
Ottawa, ON
Mine's leaking like a a sieve so might do the same.
 

SkydiveAL

Member
Jan 1, 2020
5
Madison, AL
Mine's leaking like a a sieve so might do the same.

mine too, I had a stripped bolt on the front of the pan and many of them were loose. Made me feel better getting into it and replacing the seal. Haven't driven a tank of gas yet so jury isn't out yet. I used to put about 2 quarts in it every fillup, so it leaked good. You have too remove the cross brace and one side of the power steering to get pan out, but was honestly easy enough.
 

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