I thought about this as well, as the AWD seems to suck gas and the CV boots tend to tear in the front.

However, an entirely new axle assembly (both CV joints, shafts, etc) is about $75 a side, so I just went and overhauled the front end and was done with it. With new struts, control arms, ball joints, tie rods, sway bar links, etc., it came to about $600 in parts. It is a lot of hard work, though.

But could a RWD conversion be done? Sure, and it would not be that hard.

ABS: The ABS (ASC) wheel speed sensors are indeed mounted on the spindle assembly. HOWEVER, the outer part of the outer CV joint has to be present for the sensor to count wheel rotations. A simple fix would be to cut off the outer part of that joint after removing the axle, and then bolt it into the bearing hub (using the original axle nut).

BEARINGS: Someone mentioned the bearings "wouldn't be happy" without the axle shafts in them. I am not sure how to parse this, but I presume they are implying that the inner race, without the axle shaft in place, would somehow be stressed. I doubt this is the case, but in any event, the ABS solution note above would solve this potential problem.

TRANSFER CASE: on the older models, the transfer case is New Process Gear case (yes, the former division of Chrysler. Act shocked. Guess who made your struts? Delphi - formerly of GM. There is a lot of American content in this car). The easiest thing to do is simply remove the transfer case, and front prop shaft. Have the drive shaft lengthened a few inches (and rebalanced, any shaft shop can do this) and you are back in business. There are no electrical connectors to the transfer case (that I can see, anyway) on these older models. So it should not set off any CE lights or whatever.

That's about it. The car would be a hundred pounds lighter (at least) with the removal of the transfer case, front prop shaft, axle half shafts, etc. Removing the front differential would be a bear, as you have to jack up the engine to get it out from under the oil pan (which is molded around it).

One problem might be that the front end might ride higher, as a result of this weight loss.

But it should provide marginally better gas mileage, due to the reduced weight and particularly due to the reduced driveline friction. AWD is nice and all, but you do pay a penalty in terms of weight, resistance, repairs, and initial cost.

But all that being said, at $75 for an axle (the boot kit alone is $35, so why not just replace the whole axle? It's easier) I decided to keep my old 2002 as an AWD model.

Besides, at this point, I have the axle-swapping procedure down to a 45-minute job.

They literally just pry out of the differential. Getting the new ones back in is another story, particularly if the C-clip is not sized properly.... Don't force it!