Four-wheel drive vehicles have good cross-country ability, stability and controllability, but they also have a drawback - increased fuel consumption. To save fuel on some models, the rear axle can be disabled, on others it is not provided. Nevertheless, even on such cars, rear-wheel drive can still be disabled by making some design changes.
Instructions
Step 1
It should be noted right away that in a situation where the disabling of the front or rear drive is not provided by the manufacturer, an independent change in the design can lead to a deterioration in the stability and controllability of the vehicle. Therefore, before starting work, you should find all the available information on altering your existing car brand, read reviews and advice from those who have already carried out such an upgrade. Then decide whether to take on this work at all.
Step 2
One of the most popular Russian SUVs is the Niva. If you are its owner, then it would be best to turn off the front axle. When the rear is disconnected, the entire load will fall on the front axle and cardan, as a result, their resource will be significantly reduced. When the front axle is disconnected, all its "extra" parts are dismantled. The transfer case with cardan shafts is removed and only an extended cardan (from the VAZ-2107) is placed on the rear axle.
Step 3
There is also a more convenient option - the installation of a special front axle shutdown unit, developed by VAZ engineers. In this case, you can easily disable and enable front-wheel drive. The front drive shut-off unit can be integrated independently. The advantage of this option is that it fully matches the design of the car.
Step 4
Since there are many models of four-wheel drive cars, before disabling the front or rear wheel drive, find out which one is the main one for the car and which one is additional. The main drive must not be switched off. If the front axle is the main one, then the rear axle is most often turned off by removing the universal joint. However, in this case, various problems may arise, since the design of the gearbox and other transmission elements is not designed to cut off half the load.
Step 5
If you analyze all the pros and cons of disconnecting one of the bridges, you can make a well-founded conclusion that there will not be so many advantages. To actually obtain savings, it is necessary to dismantle all "extra" rotating parts in the disconnected drive, since friction in them will affect fuel consumption. For example, when disabling the front drive, you must remove everything from it, except for the "gutted" parts of the front CV joints. The disadvantage of this option is that it does not allow, if necessary, to quickly restore the four-wheel drive. An illogical situation arises - why buy a car with all-wheel drive, then make it a regular one with one axle? One or two liters of gasoline saved will not pay off the deterioration in vehicle performance and conversion costs.
