Thanks for the info man, I'm aware of the lower BJ and how to deal with them lol.
Why do you wish you kept OEM axles? I think mine are original and it's just a torn boot as of now, so could get away with just changing the boot.
Why did you replace the hub?
And what does the outer axle shaft seal actually seal?
I'm pretty sure my outer seal on the driver side is leaking, so I'll be replacing that. I think I might actually have more than that leaking so I need to get some good pictures and see what people think.
I wish I kept the OEM CV axles just because of their heft compared to the Cardone. There were actually OEM front axle shafts on Rockauto for sale at the time I was doing my replacement and I believe they were ~$350 ea. I didn't know that one could rebuild CV axles, so just threw them out to save space in my tiny garage. You could probably rebuild and get a good price on ebay if nothing else. I just assumed they were a wear item and didn't think to look into getting money for them.
I replaced the hubs because I had front bearing noise at higher speeds. Assumed it was the hubs, but turns out it was actually the front diff bearings making noise. The seal pops into the rear of the knuckle and keeps debris out of the hub bearings. it seals around the outboard end of the cv axle where it enters the knuckle.