[spuggy]

Yup, you don't have an LSD, even a worn one.

I first noticed my CV joints were knacked when they suddenly made a horrendous clanking noise pulling away gently from a grocery store late one night. After that, I noticed that when driving anywhere that noise would reflect back to the driver's side (e.g. a wall close to the road), there was a constant "busy whirring" from the rear axles.

Grab the end of the axle just above the CV itself, and push backwards and forwards at 90 degrees to the axle. If it moves significantly (as in goes "donk, donk" from side-to-side), it's completely shot, IMHO. Turn the wheel and test in several different positions, repeat for the other end of the axle next to the gearbox flange (these often don't seem as bad), then do the other side.

If it's just making noise but there's no play, you might be able to just re-pack with extreme-pressure Moly grease, 4oz each (they say, it's a struggle to get that much in). In my experience, if you've got bad play in one CV, you may find that other joints which show little or no play on the car may also be completely trashed when you strip them...

The sorts of damage you may find are chipped bearing cages and surfaces, skidding ball bearings with lumps out of them and blued or broken balls. The ones I did were much worse inside than I had expected.

If you're going to clean the old ones, be prepared to get completely filthy. I used two cans of brake cleaner and a roll and a half of shop towel.

Lookup the threads on using the correct bolts, moon washers and schnoor washers and be careful both to torque and then re-check those puppies...