Omega, I'm troubleshooting now AWD on my 2002 XC70 and found your comments about the common spline issues on this post: http://www.v70xc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12121 So far I have determined the drive shaft is spinning between the bevel gear and viscous coupler. This was done by a procedure where you jack up a front wheel while the car is in N and turn a wheel to see the shaft turning. My question is what were you symptoms prior to the failure? Was there noise of the slip on the spline as I hear nothing concern from the bevel gear area. I would assume such a failure would make quite a noise at somepoint before rounding off. I've read posts were some suggest my test would in fact show the shaft spinning but under load the spline may slip. Any comments from your experience would be very helpful. Shawn