I ended up destroying the carrier bearing in my attempt to remove the right CV Axle from the car. I ordered a replacement from AutoZone (new not reman). When I received it the outer CV joint was incredibly stiff. I returned it to AutoZone but they couldn't get me another until next Tuesday so I got a replacement from Advance Auto (also new). It has the same stiffness in the outer CV joint that the AutoZone brand had. I've gone ahead and put it on the car and drove about ten miles with seemingly no repercussions. It's hard to tell though because I can't hear much over the brakes (it's been sitting for almost two months so I'm scraping all of the rust off of my rotors, I have plans to replace them soon).

Is it normal for just the outer joint to be that stiff?

 

Stiffness is subjective to each person. But it may be caused by the rubber boot, which wouldn't be a problem.

But when you were changing the axle, you should have hit the rotor with some sandpaper and knocked off the rust. All that rust grinding into the brake pads can't be good.

 

I knocked off most of it. Turns out the noise was from dust shields, I must have bent them slightly as they were rubbing on the back of the rotors.

The stiffness in the drive shaft was not from the boot. I drove it to work and back today (about 90 miles round trip) and most of the time it seemed fine. Occasionally however, there was a groan that I could almost feel more than I could hear coming from the passenger side. This occurred during a couple of sharp turns and while accelerating out of a curve. I am thinking this is a bad thing.

 

Any ideas on a better source for a half shaft? OEM is over $600 and I cannot (and will not) pay that kind of money. I've never had problems with aftermarket drive shafts before.

 

I replaced both my axles in my 97 with NAPA house brand axles, new ones, not reman. That was back last Sept and so for, no problems.