MY V drive Hurth transmission lasted 21 tears before I replaced it. It had been used on two engines with a total of over 8000 hours. It still worked fine but dripped fluid from the lower seal. After two attempts to fix the seal without opening the case, I decided to replace it. I did not baby this tranny. The only maintenance I did on it (other than try to fix the seal) was to change the fluid.

PS. Is there a time limit of editing your own post? I accidentally deleted it when I wanted to do a minor edit.