>
>
> My question is - "Is smooth silence typical from an unweighted handturned
> blown CV joint?" - or is some other expensive hard to fix thing broken?
>

The classic "clonking" from the CV joints is the result of a stick-slip
action under tension, usually caused by damaged bearing surfaces in the CV
joint due to lubrication failure. You probably wouldn't be able to
reproduces the same stick-slip just spinning the wheel by hand unless it's
REALLY bad. Vaguely similar "clonking" can be caused by wheel bearing issues
or assorted brake gremlins, but those usually show up when you spin the
wheel by hand also. If you haven't regreased the CV joints in the last
30Kmiles, you might as well just pull them off and clean the grease off. If
they're buggered, replace. If not, well, a fresh re-greasing can't hurt 'em.

--
John Bange
'90 Vanagon - "Geldsauger"