wheel bearing and axle come to mind as possible causes.
there is not ''FWD'' fuse on the 01 VDC. there is a fuse holder but i think it turns off the VDC. no way to make it FWD except to remove the drive shaft. and i don't know enough to know if pulling the drive shaft will hurt it. i don't think it will . the VDC is a better AWD system but it should operate just fine with the draive shaft gone.
as you mentioned, the trans will puke ATF with out the ''front section'' drive shaft. if you want / need to drive it with out the drive shaft i suggest you leave the front section in place and remove the REAR section of the shaft. i did this with my 95 lego auto trans and drove it 40k miles as FWD.
there is not ''FWD'' fuse on the 01 VDC. there is a fuse holder but i think it turns off the VDC. no way to make it FWD except to remove the drive shaft. and i don't know enough to know if pulling the drive shaft will hurt it. i don't think it will . the VDC is a better AWD system but it should operate just fine with the draive shaft gone.
as you mentioned, the trans will puke ATF with out the ''front section'' drive shaft. if you want / need to drive it with out the drive shaft i suggest you leave the front section in place and remove the REAR section of the shaft. i did this with my 95 lego auto trans and drove it 40k miles as FWD.