mlochala
Active Member
- Joined
- March 18, 2010
- Messages
- 56
- Reaction score
- 4
- City, State
- Amory, MS
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1998 Mountaineer AWD
I have a 1998 Mercury Mountaineer AWD. I recently changed out all upper control arms, lower ball joints, tie rod ends, CV axles, rotors and brake pads. However, I still have a vibration and a terrible noise which I have discovered is coming from the front driveshaft on the front transaxle. From reading different threads on this site, I'm afraid my front unit has gone bad or at least the viscous coupling is bad.
Financially, I can't afford to swap vehicles or do any more major work to this vehicle right now. Other than the front unit, this is an excellent vehicle with a lot of life left in it.
I was wondering about removing the front unit and then changing the hubs and transmission out for 2WD versions. I'd really rather just have 2WD than AWD. (When I bought this vehicle, it was really the only thing I could find that I liked and could afford.) My questions are this:
1) How difficult is it to remove the front transaxle?
2) Will the hubs or knuckle assembly from a similar 2WD version interchange with the AWD control arms?
3) What transmission would I need to be looking for from a 2WD to replace it with?
4) What else is lurking that I don't know about that would also need to be changed?
Financially, I can't afford to swap vehicles or do any more major work to this vehicle right now. Other than the front unit, this is an excellent vehicle with a lot of life left in it.
I was wondering about removing the front unit and then changing the hubs and transmission out for 2WD versions. I'd really rather just have 2WD than AWD. (When I bought this vehicle, it was really the only thing I could find that I liked and could afford.) My questions are this:
1) How difficult is it to remove the front transaxle?
2) Will the hubs or knuckle assembly from a similar 2WD version interchange with the AWD control arms?
3) What transmission would I need to be looking for from a 2WD to replace it with?
4) What else is lurking that I don't know about that would also need to be changed?