CV joint binding? help diagnosing prblm

[farrenator@yahoo.com (Victor Farren)]

Sorry, this is not a rocco, but a 1984 Rabbit gti.

I am driving home last night and I feel a bad
vibration in the pedals of the car.  The vibration
gets louder and stronger and almost feels like the
tire is going to fall off the car, or as if I had a
really bad flat tire.  I thought: 1) tire was about to
fall off b/c of loose bolts, 2) control arm was about
to fall off of car, 3) cv joint was about to fall off
of trans.  The sound/vibration increases with rolling
speed.  It also seemed to go away and come back
intermittenly.

I pulled off the road a couple of times to look under
the car and check that all the suspension and axle
shafts were tight and wheel were secure.  Nothing was
falling off and all looked good :)  I made it home and
pulled off wheel just to retighten CV joints in case
any bolts were loose.  Doing this I realized that the
drivers side inner cv joint was binding.  I can
usually turn the axle shaft by hand, turning the
actual axle shaft when the car is in neutral and both
front tires are off the ground.  There was a definite
sticking point when rotating the shaft 360 degrees.  I
had to go to turn the shaft by turning the brake rotor
so I could get more leverage and get past the sticking
point. 

No doubt I have to get this fixed, but has anyone had
this experience of a binding cv joint?  Did it create
this god awful vibration?  Or do I have something else
(in addition) wrong with the car :)  Damn thing felt
pretty sketchy.  It sounded like something was banging
up against the car.

Thanks,

Please respond directly to my email,
farrenator@yahoo.com since I am on digest mode.

Victor

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