2003OnyxSS Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 (edited) Has anyone out there done the conversion from AWD to RWD? Also wondering if i will gain fuel mileage and maybe horsepower/speed? What EXACTLY do i need for parts and how do i do it if i want to do the conversion. Any other things i missed that you might want to point out you can respond too please. Thank you for your help! Edited February 20, 2011 by kennyouellette03 (see edit history) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diggerdan11 Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 Here is a link to a post yesterday of someone who was asking the same thing. http://www.silveradoss.com/forums/topic/68818-awd-to-2wd/ There is a lot more envolved that just removing the transfer case IMO fix your transfer case and stay AWD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2003OnyxSS Posted February 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 Need more info on this subject there must be some experts on this site that knows exactly to the T what needs to be done for the change over. your help is much needed and appreciated thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chpspecial Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 Short: Do a search it has already been covered. Long: You need the front hubs from a 2wd truck as well as the trans, Drive shaft, Drive shaft carrier bearing, the 9.5" rear end (what you save on a TC you will spend fixing up the 8.625" rear, and you will be foolish to keep the 8.625). Or if you want to keep your current Trans, it will need to come out, and have the longer 2wd output shaft as well as the tail shaft replaced to the standards of a 2wd trans (once again, cheaper to just fix you TC). then you need to remove the front hubs, front diff, half shafts, TC and do slight rewiring to get your speedo working again. And while your this involved, you might as well as ditch the leaf springs, being as how you will have very little traction and get a good ladder bar/4 link rear suspension. The few that have done the AWD to 2WD conversion have solely done it for 1/4mile purposes and have added the 4 link rear with a stronger diff. not need on a DD. The fuel economy is minor compared to the cost involved to do the conversion. As for 1/4 E.T's, between the AWD trucks and the 2WD, they are with in a tenth of each other, no one has a real upperhand over the other, untill serious money and power gets trown into the equation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2003OnyxSS Posted February 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 Thanks for the help man. If anyone knows where i can get those parts or links etc let me know. also any other opinions or other inputs would be great too just for comparison purposes and if anyone has a 2wd and looking to convert to AWD let me know maybe we can swap some parts save us both money! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jordan836 Posted February 18, 2011 Report Share Posted February 18, 2011 Hello guys, i have a 2003 silverado SS. My front transfer case needs a new vicious coupler or bearing because it is making a slight noise. I have always wondered if i would benefit from having a RWD instead of the AWD. I love the traction of the AWD but it is extremely hard on gas especially with my heavy foot and there are clearly a lot more parts involved which can go bad and cost money to fix. Has anyone out there done the conversion from AWD to RWD? I am also wondering if it would be cheaper to convert it from AWD to RWD rather than opening the transfer case up to repair the bearing. Also wondering if i will gain fuel mileage and maybe horsepower/speed? What EXACTLY do i need for parts and how do i do it if i want to do the conversion. Any other things i missed that you might want to point out you can respond too please. Thank you for your help! I have been contemplating the same thing because my front diff is starting to make noise too. Now I love the AWD because its traction all the time which is really fun. Now If I were you I would see what is actually wrong with the truck that is making the noise because if its a simple not so expensive fix then it would kind of pointless to spend all the money right now to convert it to 2wd. If you can get all the parts you need at a really good deal then I would say consider it. The parts youll need as stated above are 2wd front hubs I think you can also do 2wd control arms too to get rid of the torsion bars but im not totally sure on that but youll either need a 2wd tranny or take your tranny apart and change the output shaft and tail housing now the best bet if you want to just replace the entire tranny is if you can try to find a 2wd 4l65E instead of a 2wd 4l60e they are basically the same thing except the 4l65e (which is what is in the truck now just set up with a transfer case) has a 5 pinion planetary which makes the 4l65e a little stronger than a 4l60e but both are weak and if you want to get really fancy do an 80e swap and you wont really have to worry about the tranny breaking. If you dont want to go that route you can find a 2wd 4l65e in a 2wd SS and im sure theres some other vehicles it came it im just not sure of which ones but you can check your local junk yards or online somewhere. Next youll need a drive shaft you can either find one out of a 2wd silverado or have a custom one made and youll have to run a center carrier bearing. Ive seen some 2wd silverados snap the stock 2wd drive shafts and do alot of damage so a custom one might be the better way to go. Now as far as the rear end You can get away with just running the 10 bolt im not sure how long it will last with the crappy G80 differential it has in there but id just upgrade to a tru trac, ive seen the 8.625 10 bolts hold quite a bit of power with a tru trac and will be plenty unless your producing big power, obviously the 9.5 rear end will be stronger since its bigger but I wouldnt really say its a must unless you find one for a good price. You might have to do some wiring with your speedo to get it to read right but im not to sure. As far as a crossmember you might not have to do anything to the stock one but im not totally sure you might have to cut and weld it a little bit but im not sure. Now as far as traction if you want to get decent traction id get a set of caltracs that should help with traction but also it depends on how much power your putting out another important thing is tire choice too, any 2wd truck with out some sort of traction help you wont be able to put the pedal from a dead stop and get traction like you can with AWD but thats just something youll have to sacrafice. One of the main reasons Im thinking about doing the swap is just because it saves I think around 350 pounds of weight off the truck, you have alot less moving parts which just give you less things to worry about breaking, as well as economy purposes even though it wont be much and the fact now youll only be sending power to 2 wheels instead of 4. And one of the biggest reasons being to tune it. No one around here has a AWD dyno big enough to dyno tune the SS where as if its 2wd then dyno tuning wont be an issue. But basically I dont think id actually go through with the swap unless say my tranny had to come apart anyways like say if I broke it an while it was apart id just convert to 2wd and just switch output shafts while it was apart, or if I totally grenaded my front diff or transfercase then I would definitley do the 2wd conversion. But if its just a simple bearing that had to be replaced because thats what was making the noise then I dont think it would be worth it to spend the extra money to do the conversion Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2003OnyxSS Posted February 18, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2011 I have been contemplating the same thing because my front diff is starting to make noise too. Now I love the AWD because its traction all the time which is really fun. Now If I were you I would see what is actually wrong with the truck that is making the noise because if its a simple not so expensive fix then it would kind of pointless to spend all the money right now to convert it to 2wd. If you can get all the parts you need at a really good deal then I would say consider it. The parts youll need as stated above are 2wd front hubs I think you can also do 2wd control arms too to get rid of the torsion bars but im not totally sure on that but youll either need a 2wd tranny or take your tranny apart and change the output shaft and tail housing now the best bet if you want to just replace the entire tranny is if you can try to find a 2wd 4l65E instead of a 2wd 4l60e they are basically the same thing except the 4l65e (which is what is in the truck now just set up with a transfer case) has a 5 pinion planetary which makes the 4l65e a little stronger than a 4l60e but both are weak and if you want to get really fancy do an 80e swap and you wont really have to worry about the tranny breaking. If you dont want to go that route you can find a 2wd 4l65e in a 2wd SS and im sure theres some other vehicles it came it im just not sure of which ones but you can check your local junk yards or online somewhere. Next youll need a drive shaft you can either find one out of a 2wd silverado or have a custom one made and youll have to run a center carrier bearing. Ive seen some 2wd silverados snap the stock 2wd drive shafts and do alot of damage so a custom one might be the better way to go. Now as far as the rear end You can get away with just running the 10 bolt im not sure how long it will last with the crappy G80 differential it has in there but id just upgrade to a tru trac, ive seen the 8.625 10 bolts hold quite a bit of power with a tru trac and will be plenty unless your producing big power, obviously the 9.5 rear end will be stronger since its bigger but I wouldnt really say its a must unless you find one for a good price. You might have to do some wiring with your speedo to get it to read right but im not to sure. As far as a crossmember you might not have to do anything to the stock one but im not totally sure you might have to cut and weld it a little bit but im not sure. Now as far as traction if you want to get decent traction id get a set of caltracs that should help with traction but also it depends on how much power your putting out another important thing is tire choice too, any 2wd truck with out some sort of traction help you wont be able to put the pedal from a dead stop and get traction like you can with AWD but thats just something youll have to sacrafice. One of the main reasons Im thinking about doing the swap is just because it saves I think around 350 pounds of weight off the truck, you have alot less moving parts which just give you less things to worry about breaking, as well as economy purposes even though it wont be much and the fact now youll only be sending power to 2 wheels instead of 4. And one of the biggest reasons being to tune it. No one around here has a AWD dyno big enough to dyno tune the SS where as if its 2wd then dyno tuning wont be an issue. But basically I dont think id actually go through with the swap unless say my tranny had to come apart anyways like say if I broke it an while it was apart id just convert to 2wd and just switch output shafts while it was apart, or if I totally grenaded my front diff or transfercase then I would definitley do the 2wd conversion. But if its just a simple bearing that had to be replaced because thats what was making the noise then I dont think it would be worth it to spend the extra money to do the conversion Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2003OnyxSS Posted February 18, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2011 Hey man thanks for your reply there is a lot useful information that you mentioned that i was looking for. My local junk yard has a 2wd tranny which he said was a 4l65e but i have to make sure he didnt mix it up for a 4l60e. He said it only has 40k miles on it and i can grab that for $700 bucks. this would make the swap worth while. main reasons why i want to do the swap is one for fuel economy, 2 for less moving parts less things to break, 3 to avoid the labor ripping the transfer case apart along with the parts need to replace. Also right now i have 22" ss replica rims that are heavier than stock then i have huge 285/55/22 inch falken m+s tires so there is a lot of grip on the road and im thinking id have decent traction, i used to have an 03 5.3 silverado with around 300 horse 2wd and i was used to controling that truck even tho i could break it loose at 45 mph. would a driveshaft work for off any 2wd silverado extended cab same body style as the ss? thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cramer Posted February 19, 2011 Report Share Posted February 19, 2011 Upgrade the rear end too while your at it. And have someone go through the trans and rebuild it before you put it in. You won't get much better mileage by swapping to 2wd either. More things that can break don't mean that they will. The weakest link will break. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2003OnyxSS Posted February 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2011 Upgrade the rear end too while your at it. And have someone go through the trans and rebuild it before you put it in. You won't get much better mileage by swapping to 2wd either. More things that can break don't mean that they will. The weakest link will break. what should i do with the rear end? that stuff isnt my specialty i do mostly exterior customizing and some interior along with audio system and few bolt on performance stuff not a big expert in the mechanics of the drivetrain. help me out.. thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jordan836 Posted February 19, 2011 Report Share Posted February 19, 2011 Hey man thanks for your reply there is a lot useful information that you mentioned that i was looking for. My local junk yard has a 2wd tranny which he said was a 4l65e but i have to make sure he didnt mix it up for a 4l60e. He said it only has 40k miles on it and i can grab that for $700 bucks. this would make the swap worth while. main reasons why i want to do the swap is one for fuel economy, 2 for less moving parts less things to break, 3 to avoid the labor ripping the transfer case apart along with the parts need to replace. Also right now i have 22" ss replica rims that are heavier than stock then i have huge 285/55/22 inch falken m+s tires so there is a lot of grip on the road and im thinking id have decent traction, i used to have an 03 5.3 silverado with around 300 horse 2wd and i was used to controling that truck even tho i could break it loose at 45 mph. would a driveshaft work for off any 2wd silverado extended cab same body style as the ss? thank you! You can use a drive shaft from another extended 2wd silverado, youll need the whole set up with the center carrier bearing too. But the 2wd 2 peice drive shafts are pretty weak If I were you and was doing all the work id upgrade to a custom stronger one. A friend of mine had a full chromoly drive shaft made for his silverado and it was to outrageous as you might think. Then as far as upgrading the rear end you will have no problem keeping the stock 10 bolt but id install a better carrier like a tru trac ive seen those hold some good power and everyone ive talked to that has the tru trac likes it alot. You can use the stock G80 for the time being but they are really weak and probably wont last long with the truck being 2wd. And like sinr98 said it wouldnt be a bad idea to have someone go through the tranny you were looking at just to give you a peice of mind that it wont break. But all those 4l60e's and 4l65e's really arent the strongest trannys by any means and that will always be a weak link but if its built right and taken care of theres a good chance it might last quite a while. At the very least if you have someone go through it install a transgo HD-2 shift kit corvette 1-2 servos and a billet 4th servo wouldnt be a bad idea either along with aluminum accumulator pistons. Look on summit for the shift kit its the cheapest ive found it and I got the other stuff from oregonperformancetransmisson.com they usually have good prices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexs ss Posted April 3, 2011 Report Share Posted April 3, 2011 hey man,im alex im new here and ive seen your page ,, and im intristed on the transfer case, mine is leaking from rea output shAft seal 3 times n replaced the shaft $600 at dealer and still leaking, maybe the housing is worn for the seal to fit tight....if ur selling ur nvg 149 tc ,pleez call me at 7013311295... Thanks for the help man. If anyone knows where i can get those parts or links etc let me know. also any other opinions or other inputs would be great too just for comparison purposes and if anyone has a 2wd and looking to convert to AWD let me know maybe we can swap some parts save us both money! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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