Greetings Joel.
My apologies in taking so long to respond. I am in the middle of a
kitchen reno, presently mudding the drywall. What a pain. Anyway, to
answer your questions.

> I was wondering if the noise that your hear is like playing cards in the spokes of a bicycle?

No.

> My 89 Syncro makes a slight "playing card in the spokes" sound, likewise when I turn hard while backing up out of my driveway.  It seems to bind and slow down naturally without braking. Could this be a symptom of the CV joint going?

Does the "playing card in the spokes" change with wheel speed ? Now that
I got thinking about this, I paid attention to my reverse when turning
and my van does slow down, but I don't hear anything. When my last front
CV went there was always a noticeable binding when turning in slow,
forward and reverse. On hwy driving it was fine until one day after 2
hours on the hwy the front end started banging. Turned out that water
had got into the CV joint causing it to seize when hot after a long
drive.

> How do I determine which is going? Left or right? Inner or outer?

Check the front outers. On mine when I turned to the left it would bind.
Replaced passenger side front outer. Although it would be good
maintenance to get them all checked, lubed etc.

> Wonder what is the time to live on this because I hear no noise in the
forward direction.

Like my last CV, I drove for a couple of months then all of a sudden it
went. I have one inner CV that a mechanic said was a bit scored. He
lubed it and said maybe 20K km. That was 40K ago. You never can tell.
Best maintenance is preventive maintenance.
Good luck Joel.

R.Feueriegel
88 syncro

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