Could be you, sweetie!!! ;P
Um, everyone seems to be focusing on RWD here, but the OP was asking about
FWD only. Like I said, disconnect the rear drive shaft!- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
Simply disconnecting the rear drive shaft will not do it. He also
needs to lock the differential. That is how the rear wheel drive
conversion is done. You lock the fore/aft diff and pull the front
shafts out. Locking the diff requires removing it from the
transmission and welding it together. You also get to remove a few
moving parts.
I really don't think this conversion would be worth it though. The
only rotating mass you would be removing is a little from the
differential, and the drive shaft. Not an appreciable bit. It mgiht
make a difference in mileage, but I don't think it woudl be enough to
justify the work involved. Especially if you are paying someone to do
it for you. You'd never recoup that through saved gas money.
As far as simply pulling the fuse, the parts would still be moving,
even if there wasn't torque applied to them by the drive train, it
would be applied to them by the road acting through the freewheeling
wheels, and those ultimately get their energy from the drive wheels,
so there wouldn't be any real gain there.
I'm not sure when subaru switched to fancy clutches to control the
amount of torque routed to different places, but I'm 99% sure that in
95(the year my car is) the differentials were open, and the traction
control was managed simply by applying brakes to the spinning wheels.
Basically the wheel speed sensors from the ABS system were used to
monitor the wheel speed, and any wheel more than 7% different from the
others(I dont' remember if it is the average of the others, or the
slowest, but that is trivial.) gets its brake applied to slow it down.
So if 97 used the same system, then pulling the fuse will likely only
kill the traction control, but not affect the amount of torque applied
to the rear wheels. So you'd be able to spin your wheels at different
speeds, but not save any money. I wonder if this would have any ill
effects on ABS.
If you want to save fuel by driving a front wheel drive ccar, then
sell the subie and get a front wheel drive car with amazing mileage
like an aveo or fit or something like that.
As for handling, killing the traction control will allow you to spin
the inside tires exiting corners if you have the power to do so. Like
in the Oh-so-often instance that you are doing 45 in second gear and
accelerating out of a really tight turn. So unless you race this on a
course, then you will ikely never notice a difference on dry pavement.
I still would just leave it alone though.
Just my two cents.
Good luck with whatever you decide.
Bill
