I purchased tractor used, and the shaft had been cut in half to remove. Both ends have a coupler with 4 ball bearings. Perhaps this is what you refer to as a cv joint. One of these was locked up, so I cleaned it up and replaced the bearings, put a heavy walled pipe over the shaft and pinned it to each section, and it works fine. At some point I may need to replace the ends and was wondering if anyone else had ever tried something different such as a u joint, rather than the coupling ball setup. To replace the factory shaft requires splitting the tractor, so a 2 piece would save a lot of work. If I replace everything with new parts, I probably will make it two piece and put a coupler in. Thanks for your comment, I was just wondering if others had tried something rather than splitting tractor. I do not have any photos. Thanks.