Sorry for the delay Gents.
Spent the hard earned weeken in the mountains.
A friend lent me his LBZ so we could make it.
Found a 263XHD rebuild kit on Merchant automotive and RockAuto. Gonna buy the RA kit, year it out, apart, and see what's broke... As suggested.
It'll be a while, bit I'll follow up on what it issue turns out to be.