I am completely ignorant to the intricacies of CV joints (aka drive shaft per parts catalog). Preliminary questions:

1. How do you know when they need rebuilding?
2. Can you tell if car isn't running?
3. What is the worst case if you drive on worn out joints?
4. Is the job significantly more difficult if the engine / transmission is in the car?

The car has sat idle but garaged for 16 years.
Click to view attachment
I have already blown my self-imposed goal of driving to Parade. Any projects I can defer will improve my chances of driving to Rennsport.

As always, thanks for humoring my questions. I poked around the forum and the factory manual but I didn't find this covered.

P.S. found a nice rebuild video on Ian Karr's channel. I could do it, just running out of time...

Simple job. Thinking they should be repacked every 50K. Do them with everything out now. Good news for -6 owners is Porsche had them remade and are available.

One tell tail sign is look at the interior of the axle flanges (once grease is wiped away)
If you see witness (wear) marks on those flanges it means the cages & balls are worn and hyper extending, if driving this might also be accompanied with a distinct clunk when applying power.
Worst case is an inner lets go at highway speeds

The clunk is the dead giveaway. Other wear effects and the rebuilding process in this video…

https://youtu.be/F-5Xpug52Qw