A Hurth dealer took apart my V-drive and discovered wear and crevice corrosion on the shaft, and noted that the seals were hardened. They recommended I install a cooler. Oddly enough I put one on this year, but the damage had been done after 10 years without the cooler. I'll also get more religious about protecting the tranny from any stuffing box moisture, as well as protecting with Boeshield or similar.

I'm getting a deal on two new trannys; the cost to repair this one was almost the cost of new.

Thanks for the responses to my recent post, and to Randy for the great idea of a USB mini cam to peer into blind spots.

Max