Drive shaft or wheel bearings faulty?

[amebb]

Hi
I have an issue with my car.

When i am driving, lets say 25mph i get a sound from the front drivers side of the car.


It is like mmmmm-----mmmmmm----mmmmm------mmmmmm----mm etc and gets louder as i drive faster.


Now, my car has done about 180k miles and i did noticed that the outer CV boot on the front drive shaft was torn and missing grease.


Yesterday, i replaced the CV boot and applied lots of grease to the drive shaft bearings.


I still am getting the sound. It did get better then worse again after a few miles of driving.


My question is..... without removing the drive shaft and the wheel etc how can i tell if i have a bad front drive shaft or is it the bearings in the wheel knuckle?


If i was to remove the drive shaft from the car and the knuckle how can i tell what is the faulty part here?


Any help would be much appreciated.




Thank you