Regarding the "tripod" inner CV joint and the difficulty in re-assembling the roller needle bearing assemblies....
After hearing the various warnings about NOT taking these apart (you'll hate life, kick the dog, etc) - I did, twice, by accident! For about 5 minutes I was ready to kill myself, as I watched the needle bearing bits slowly drip off the CV joint and onto the workbench.
I tried to re-assemble them, and of course the "needles" would not stay in place. Life sucked!
How to hold the MANY needles in place long enough to re-assemble the bearing?
Then a bright idea - I had experienced this before, assembling some needle bearings for the main wheel of my homebuilt HP-18 sailplane. The fix?
Clean up the needles and the inner bearing race VERY carefully to remove the old "gorilla snot" CV grease. Then use a good, viscous, thick CV grease (I used RedLine's CV-2 red synthetic CV lube) and your finger to put a medium-thick smear of grease around the bearing race - leave a small "fillet" of grease at the base of the joint. Then carefuly pick up the needles and place them back onto the bearing race. Take your time and push them down against the race - be careful not to leave any space between the needles. Makes sure ALL the needles are there - there should be no gaps at all. Put another good smear on the inner race of the outer bearing (the "donut") and carefully push the donut back into place.
Hint - It really helps to do this without latex or nitrile gloves - you'll get a much better feel for the 'needles'.
Wa-la! Two minutes and you are done - and you can breathe again.
After hearing the various warnings about NOT taking these apart (you'll hate life, kick the dog, etc) - I did, twice, by accident! For about 5 minutes I was ready to kill myself, as I watched the needle bearing bits slowly drip off the CV joint and onto the workbench.

Then a bright idea - I had experienced this before, assembling some needle bearings for the main wheel of my homebuilt HP-18 sailplane. The fix?
Clean up the needles and the inner bearing race VERY carefully to remove the old "gorilla snot" CV grease. Then use a good, viscous, thick CV grease (I used RedLine's CV-2 red synthetic CV lube) and your finger to put a medium-thick smear of grease around the bearing race - leave a small "fillet" of grease at the base of the joint. Then carefuly pick up the needles and place them back onto the bearing race. Take your time and push them down against the race - be careful not to leave any space between the needles. Makes sure ALL the needles are there - there should be no gaps at all. Put another good smear on the inner race of the outer bearing (the "donut") and carefully push the donut back into place.
Hint - It really helps to do this without latex or nitrile gloves - you'll get a much better feel for the 'needles'.
Wa-la! Two minutes and you are done - and you can breathe again.