Funny. When you had the shaft out could you move the all the joints smoothly esp the front one?

Yes. That was part of the reason I did pull the whole assembly rather than grease it in place, I wanted to feel how smoothly the joints moved. All moved smoothly, none felt 'tight', none felt rough. They were all the same style aftermarket joint, so, I assume they were all changed at once, and not individually as they wore out.

Before I pulled the joint free from the rear, I marked it to be sure to put it back the same way too.