1998 v70 is it possible to remove rear axles permanently ?

bronco · Post by **bronco** » 20 Jun 2025, 13:52

Backstory

I have a 1998 V70 , the rear driveshaft was long gone before i bought the car now i need to do rear wheel bearing on the passenger side but probably both.

can i get rid of the rear axles forever? maybe i need to leave the outer but the inners are just spinning to no purpose

i feel like the outer part needs to remain to keep the bearing alive . I tried searching because i feel like this must have been discussed many times but im not getting any results

i vaguely remembered a thread on this forum from years ago where someone cut the end of the axles and left stubs in the bearing

Post by **scot850** » 20 Jun 2025, 15:30

It is not a common subject, but yes maybe you would need something to hold the bearing in place. It will depend in the bearing is pressed into the hub and held in place by a C-clip or likes. I know it is pressed in from the outer side but I cannot see a external locking clip. I think if you removed the outer CV section and bolted it in place it should still work and hold it all together.

I just took a quick look at a parts drawing. The issues I see are as follows:

1) If you remove the rear axles, there is no way to keep the oil in the rear diff and obviously eventually it will fail with no oil, even if not being used. The axle plug the hole to keep the oil in.
2) You could remove the VC unit and the rear diff altogether. The VC unit could be removed anyway if not being used. However, to remove the diff you have to drop the whole rear subframe and the fuel tank as Volvo in their wisdom mounted it into the rear sub-frame cage from the top. This has to be unbolted from the top of the subframe which cannot be done while in place.

Neil.

bronco · Post by **bronco** » 20 Jun 2025, 15:43

with axles removed and no driveshaft the rear diff won't even spin will it? I mean right now the road is spinning it and it may be part of the current noise i'm hearing . I did give up on removing the center section as being too much work

Vova585 · Post by **Vova585** » 20 Jun 2025, 16:39

My thoughts here- most likely the regular fwd v70 rear wheel bearings will fit as plug&play. You anyway have to change them, hopefully by replacing them with fwd version will fix your needs for rear axles and you can toss away rear diff and axels. Now the question if the abs connector is the same for both version so you can have working abs system.

bronco · Post by **bronco** » 21 Jun 2025, 03:53

I didn't remove the rear driveshaft it came that way but the abs never worked and i chalked it up to that.
Which may not be true but I personally removed the rear shaft from another at one point and the ABS light came on immediately so I made that assumption.
The system probably goes into default when the AWD is disabled was my thought
Can the rear knuckles from a fwd just swap in in place of the AWD knuckles? I had an s70 parts car but i scrapped it a year ago all i really saved was the transmission and small parts

Post by **abscate** » 21 Jun 2025, 04:30

The knuckles are completely different.

Removing the driveshaft (fore aft) on the first Gen AWD system (1998-2000) will not disable ABS. There are no electronics on the first Gen system.

I’m 97% sure the axle shafts don’t hold the bearings in place on the AWD cars, so I think you can remove them and stop the differential and viscous coupling drag in the back.

Bdub documented the swap ftom AWD REAR AXLE to delta link rear suspension here, it’s a big project but gets you out of a lot of nasty no-longer-available parts, not to mention fuel pump drops, etc

bronco · Post by **bronco** » 21 Jun 2025, 06:09

abscate wrote: ↑21 Jun 2025, 04:30

I’m 97% sure the axle shafts don’t hold the bearings in place on the AWD cars, so I think you can remove them and stop the differential and viscous coupling drag in the back.

Thats what I was wondering . remove axle shafts completely add new bearings then put wheel back on is what I was hoping to do.

I wasn't sure if i needed to leave the outer stub of an axle in place or not to keep the bearings in place. Trying to think it through before I start and see how other people have gone about it

Vova585 · Post by **Vova585** » 21 Jun 2025, 07:56

Looks like you are in Boston area(rust). Please consider that bearing can be rusted to the knuckle to the point that it needs lots of force to get it out. On my old 98v70xc it was so bad that slidding hammer, lots of banging with the mallet did nothing. Can only compare to subaru bearing nightmare. If you have access to air hammer and big hub remover tool and torch, you might be in luck. If not, I would seriously consider paying someone not to do it myself.

bronco · Post by **bronco** » 21 Jun 2025, 10:40

Vova585 wrote: ↑21 Jun 2025, 07:56 Looks like you are in Boston area(rust). Please consider that bearing can be rusted to the knuckle to the point that it needs lots of force to get it out. On my old 98v70xc it was so bad that slidding hammer, lots of banging with the mallet did nothing. Can only compare to subaru bearing nightmare. If you have access to air hammer and big hub remover tool and torch, you might be in luck. If not, I would seriously consider paying someone not to do it myself.

i do have a torch i could use to persuade it with . I seem to need it for almost everything on this car

Post by **abscate** » 21 Jun 2025, 12:11

I think removing the bolts from the axle shaft CV joints, two big rubber stoppers to keep the diff clean, and you are good to go.