hey just a thought

depending how long the boot has been ripped the joint could be worn out

just go to autozone or somebody
buy a rebuilt unit and put it in
then return the old one for the core charge
it will take out the guess work on if the joint may be bad

it should be to much more than $100 after the core is added in
on my moms 95 toyota avolon my dad and i slid a new axle in in less than 2 hours (had to get his tools from work) and after everything was said and done only cost around $70

Several years ago my Honda CRX tossed an outer CV joint boot. Didn't notice it until things were dry and dusty. For the fun of it I decided to leave it alone and see how long it took for the joint to need replacement. Several years and another 100+ thousand miles, and it was finally starting to clack a bit on sharp turns. So if you don't want to replace yours, I'd say you certainly can go a long time on bare CV joints.

The split seam repair boots don't work with a darn in my experiences with them. They leak nicely, and can tear themselves up rapidly. Not worth the small amount of money they cost.

On another vehicle I have non-replaceable CV joint boots. I've quite successfully repaired them on the vehicle with a needle and thread, and then cleaned up the surface and Gooped it up. It's held for several years at a shot.

CV joint grease is available at just about any decent auto shop.

If you don't get a knock on full lock then the cv is ok. We use stretchy universal boots whiich will stretch over the cv without the need to split the joint. A special tool is used ti stretch the boot over the cv. Works like magic and you can do it on the car. Just split the top ball joint and tap out the shaft from the hub.