Ha! Yep, my 14 year old son gets excited for a little wrenching time with Dad when something on the car breaks down. There was a poster who said they only way to access the leak with the bell housing symptom was to remove the transmission. My son was ecstatic...I was deflated. I was elated to find the valley pan DIY!

Looks like it's time to get parts ordered and schedule a little time off work...

As far as the knock goes...I'm going to try and squeeze another 100k out of the engine before full overhaul.

Thank you for the advice...

Cheers...