Half Axle

I drove my '83 300D into the driveway a couple weeks ago. When I went to back up to leave, the car would only move about 6 inches. It felt like the emergency brake was on(it wasn't). I jacked up each wheel in turn, they all rotated in both directions with equal drag. I suspected the flex discs but they both looked new. I jacked up the rear wheels one at a time. the drivers side acted the same while moving from drive to reverse, the passenger side acted normal in drive but in reverse it was very jerky. All this was done while the engine was only idling. Inspection showed that the inner boot was cracked and leaking lubricant. I removed the half axle(with the help of many threads on this forum). The CV joint still had quite a bit of lubricant and I couldn't feel any difference between the two joints. I wasn't sure(100%) if a new joint would cure the problem so I took an axle off a car at the local junk yard($15.00) and installed it. It's been a week now and about 300 mi. and all is well. It was surprisingly easy to remove and install the half axles.