Shiny wear surfaces are okay. Pits are not. Your CV joint is toast. Or will be soon enough. You can assume that your other joints are comparably worn unless you know they have been replaced or you have taken them off, cleaned them, and inspected the wear surfaces.
There is a circlip in a groove just at the end of the axle that prevents the center hub of the CV joint from coming off. Need to clean all the grease off and find it, then take it off. The hub may still not want to let go, and now you are faced with using a hub puller of some sort, or pounding the axle down through some sort of slot that will hold the hub but let the axle slide through. You don't need to worry about damage to the hub because you are replacing it anyway. Check out
http://www.type2.com/bartnik/tech.htm
One option for those who have more money than patience or skill is to replace the whole old cv/axle assembly with a new one, already assembled. Check out Bus Depot for the price of complete assemblies, and compare this to the price of new CV joints all around, new boots, and the years of life lost trying to disassemble the old joints and lube/install new ones yourself. It may be a good deal.
PS: I am not advocating for a throw-away mentality of bus maintenence. Quite the contrary. I use old parts until they bite the dust. But in this case, the balance scale may be pretty even.
Good luck, Tim
