My old LX had its front suspension collapse (fortunately going slow) which revealed a very strange way of driving that front axle. You can see by the pics that this driveshaft has no ball bearings, rather three large pins fit into an enclosure coming out of the tranny. This enclosure accepts thr three pins into a specailly shaped "boot". It is held in place by the strut assembly only. Our parts store had seen nothing like this in 35 years!

So what is this and where did it come from?

This is attached to the tranny. It accepts the three rods. No ball bearings or moving parts inside!

This is the drive shaft end that fits into pic one.

Here is the drive shaft. The left is standard to the front wheel and strut. The right side fits into the tranny