Hi,

I decided to check for wear and re-grease my CV joints.

I did NOT remove the CV's from the axle, so the middle "cage" never came
off to get mis-aligned.

I cleaned, found two tiny pits on two different surfaces, so will rotate
my axles (standard transmission).

I did one joint at a time to ensure the parts did not get mixed up.

With the axle still off of the van...

When I re-assembled, the CV joint feels "smooth" when I operate it by
hand in approximately the same range of motion as it would have on the fan.

If I pull the shaft out a bit, there is some catching as I rotate the
shaft/cv by hand.

I have triple checked the assembly, making sure the thin part on the
inside cage is aligned with the "thick" part of the outer housing.

The only think I can think is that the steel balls didn't go back in the
same groove that the originally came from and aren't "mated" to their
new home.

Part of me wants to reassemble and just drive, but the other part of me
doesn't want a failure on the road!

I've never felt a "new" cv joint, so I do not have anything to compare
to.  All I have to compare to is the used CV's, which seemed to operate
smoothly throughout the entire range of motion.

I did drop a ball on the concrete floor of my garage, but it did not
appear damaged (yes, I cleaned it) and I cannot imagine the hardened
steel would be damaged by dropping 2 feet onto concrete.

Do I have a problem, or is this slight sticking "normal" after
reassembling used CV's?

It's really hard to describe the sticking :(

Thanks,
Steve W.