Hrm. :/
So all has been good and happy since the axle snap and a few weeks ago I elected to complete the work on the front by replacing the tie rod ends, the pitman arm and then sending it to a shop for the strut rod bushings, the lower control arm bushings and the lower ball joints which I finally managed to track down. Save for the spring perch bushings that I cannot find there's no more bushing left in the steering and suspension left to replace. It's all new.
I elected to leave the job to a shop because I don't have the tools at the moment to spin off the CV nuts and push the CV's out so I could then drop the lower control arm. It all came back nice and aligned and felt great.
Then today I did my annual oil and filter change and on inspection I found one of my CV boots had slipped off and the other was slinging grease. At some point since I changed the tie rod ends the metal boot clamps disappeared and in their place on both sides was a black zip tie.
I'm clearly going to raise hell at the shop on Monday because that would of been a very, very expensive breakdown but I don't understand why they would of needed to remove the boot straps unless instead of pushing the CV out of the bearing hub they just pulled the CV apart. That makes no sense.
Also I got a ton of flak from people because I use Fram oil filters. I've been using them for over ten years with no issues but apparently they had a period a few years ago where the build quality was not great and now they are engine-ruining pieces of trash? I'm not totally buying this but I'm curious what happened.