They do seem to be having a bit of a run of bad luck with transmission and xfer case parts.

Here's to hoping it's something that can be sorted in short order and the last of their troubles.
Hey now. The transfer case is just fine.:elkgrin: The last shop took it upon themselves to rebuild it. That wasn't our decision. It worked just fine before the rebuild. :sombrero:
Seriously. I have no idea why they thought it was a good idea to rebuild it. Oh well.
Yes, the transmission is busted again. For the last 5 or so hours of our drive we have been stuck with 4th gear, and that is it. It was actually sort of like driving an automatic. No messing with the shifter at all. The only difference was that I had to stay between 40 and 90km/h or risk a blown engine or be out of the power curve. In town we were able to toss it into 4-lo which worked well, except for a top speed of 25mph. Getting up steep hills involved a lot of clutch slipping. If we wanted to go into 4-hi, we just got to the top of a hill, put the truck in Hi range, and then rolled down until about 30mph. Easy as pie. :snorkel:
We are hoping to get on the phone with the mechanic that rebuilt it and attempt to get some money back.
What kills me about all of this is that I have a perfectly good R380 transmission at a friend's house back in NH. We are researching shipping options to get it down here, but it seems like it will be very costly.
Oh well. We are safe and sound at Panama Passage and are enjoying the company StreakerFreak and all of the guests. Shawn and I are both looking forward to some sleep after driving straight from Managua, Nicaragua to Panama City, Panama. I think we cleared Costa Rica in about 14 hours. I have to check the SPOT tracker to be sure. Too bad it was night time. The scenery looked very impressive. I will have to add Costa Rica to my list of countries to go back and explore.