Thanks for the tips!
Went ahead and roasted the carrier bearing Saturday, so that's fixed now
It's a start. As for the leaks, I've replaced the pan gasket, rear main, valve covers oil pressure sending unit, manifold gasket/seal....all on a new engine. The next step is to yank it and put it on the stand and find out what's really going on.
As for road rash and accidents, been there done that! In 5 or 6 years of DD duty through high school and part of college I was rear ended, T-boned (frame bent, wrecked the bed and back of the cab), and sideswiped. The fear of crashing/totalling the truck isn't an issue for me, I can build another one. I'm more concerned with safety and reliability. I drove about 20K miles last year in my new truck but it's slowing down.
Time to get to work I guess!