Believe me, I wish this story was made up, but unfortunately, it's not, and the proof is sitting in my garage....
I will certainly look into replacing the balancer... Boggles my mind that it actually broke. I wasn't even driving it hard, just on the way home from the grocery store...
Is it possible, that as a result of the balancer breaking, that the shudder caused a "chain reaction" of sorts, that caused the driveshaft to move slightly and rupture the seal on the rear differential?
I mean, it looks pretty bad, oil squirted up front around the busted balancer, and there appears to be oil squirted where the bell housing meets the engine... It's as if the crankshaft bent, to some extent... But if that's the case, why would it still start up as if nothing had happened?
This is gonna be a "doozy"...