Bad passenger side shaft?

Everything in the front end decided to die last month. Bad drivers side ujoint and both bearings were chirping like mad. Lower ball joints were in bad shape too. Replaced both hub / bearings, uppper / lower joints and drivers side ujoint. Passenger side was fine, no play and moved nice and smooth. Fast forward a month....A few days ago my XJ started to make a bad grinding noise when I turn left. Worse if it is under load which led me to believe u-joint since I hadn't replaced that side. Pulled the shaft and the ujoint didn't feel smooth, kinda of "rough" on one axis. New ujoint was the correct size (double checked with caliper) but the cap could be pushed through with my finger on one of the longer axle shaft ears. Grinding noise still persists and at this point I think I need a new shaft. Anyone else second that?

The old joint... If you took the cap off of the side that was in the bad part of the ear what did it look like. Pieces missing, smooth, worn to hell, dry as a bone, etc. If any of those it could have been banging around in the cap for a while. Doing so can/will put stress on the stub ears on the axle shaft.

How did you replace them.. i.e ..What tools and method. I have seen them put in crooked and have the whole in the axle-shaft where the cap goes gets buggered up. If that is the case yes most likely you will need a new shaft.

For the drivers side I used my hydraulic shop press. The the passenger side I only needed my hammer and a wooden dowl....it was that loose. None of the old ujoints caps were dry but the needles bearings were starting to get eaten up.