I've had the driveshaft off for about 88k miles (of 188k miles)(1998 v70 awd) of course then the bearing at the front of the viscous coupler support housing went too (yes, with no driveshaft attached to it. As noted in an earlier post this past week, I'm currently removing my rear diff and all parts of the awd, there is no need to tote them around with they aren't doing anything.) I'm going to dismantle the halfshafts and leave the stub end on the rear wheel hub as I believe they hold the rear wheel bearings in place. and, my bevel gear is fine, I'm just choosing to elminate problems before they occur. I've been down here in North carolina and don't need the aggravation.

Things you will notice are the miles per gallon go up, and the turning effort for parking and tight spaces is substantially decreased.

Klaz

The best way to avoid destroying the bevel/angle gears and the rear diff, it to change the fluids in them every timing belt change. Just pump it out and refill with new stuff.

Yes, the driveshaft can be disconnected. But reconnecting it is a problem. The bolts are position specific, as is the shaft, and any change will cause the shaft to be out of balance.

Klaus
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(V♂LV♂s 1995 854T, 1998 V70R)

Although I don't have personal experience in this matter, I've been reading past posts on this forum and there are stories of folks who have accomplished this, with no undue bad effects (except losing AWD), simply by removing the rear driveshaft! One person bought an AWD V70 and discovered later that it was missing the rear driveshaft!

It makes some interesting reading.

Good luck.