I'd just unbolt the whole shaft. If you look close the shaft, it "MAY" have a inverted grease fitting at the ball socket in the CV joint. I don't believe it will in those years.If you can get a small pick under the lip of the seal and squirt some sprayable grease (even white lithium spray) under the lip,in a few spots.
The noise could actually be one of the u-joints...look for a rusty residue around the cap seals at the inner part of the crosses.
All I can say is that this particular problem caused more headaches than I can count..... and as you have shown, a lot of unneccesary work. On the bright side, you now know your front end is in pretty good shape.