Your very welcome and thank you for sharing the resolution here. All too many times we give advice and never know if it helped or what the issue ended up being.
I am glad you got it fixed and yes JB Weld can be some awesome stuff. We used it on my mom's old Camaro's block that had a very slight crack in it. She drove the car another 3 years and then sold it without any issues whatsoever. I have also used it to repair a couple dirt bike and ATV engines (per customers request like your situation). I never had one come back.
Sea weed under the dash!?!?!?!?! I think I would be calling the previous owner and asking a few questions.

 

does your truck have a salvage title
and i would be getin some answers to why there was see weed lol
anyway do a carfax report
im betting that thing has a flooded title which isnt good but i guess its ok casue yours runs and drives
and thats grea that you got your transfer case fixed fro a decent price i wish we had a decent honset mechanic here but i dont we have them ones that will half *** fix something itl be good fro around 3 months then youll have to bring it back as with my dads 99 we had fixed
spun a rod bearing and chewed up the number one cylinder so we had it boreed .30 over the whole engine
ran like a champ after it was fixed
then 1 year later just took a huge dump on us had gas in the oil pan the timing had jumped and would start
got it fixed again and know theres no fluids in teh radiator and it runs but not well

 

Surprisingly, the title is clean, per the Secretary of State's office.

Like an idiot, I bought it from a used dealer. More than once, I was burned by a dealer. Never, Ever, Ever Again. I'm sorry to say that, because I'm sure there are many very honest used dealers. I just can't seem to pick the right one.

This was an emergency purchase. When I bought it, I was supplied with a Carfax. It could have been a fake. You can buy them around here pretty easily.
I even had a "mechanic" check it thoroughly first. That was a waste! Right after I bought it, I got super busy with work and didn't pay much attention to the truck, other than driving it while working & the PM's.

When things slowed down, the surprises revealed themselves one by one. Example: A rocker caved in when I grabbed it to pull myself from under the truck. It was made of a thick layer of Bondo stuff with newspapers stuffed inside to hold it. Date on the papers? Days before I bought the truck. But, I didn't find it until several months after the purchase. There's more, but I shouldn't whine & complain.

A Chevy dealer looked up the VIN & gave me a history of dealer service items on it. Nothing unusual showed up. Lots of recalls the original owner fixed & hit-&-miss PM's.

On the plus side, I paid 7,000.00 for it just under 3 years ago & it had 95k on it. At least I assume it had a real 95,000. Can odometers still be faked? I wonder how to find out? One dealer I went into had a shelf filled with instrument clusters. It was behind a curtain, but someone opened it in front of me to get a cluster. Two minutes later, a different guy got one. Must have been 50 clusters on that shelf- at least. Scratched that delaer off my list.

So far, I've put about 27,000 miles on it and have about $3,000.00 in repairs and maintenance (including the 100,000 mile drive train PM's- but not including my pine tree air freshener) Not too bad, I guess. Can't wait until I'm a rich guy & can buy new stuff! (Sure!)

Thanks to all for your input! It's always appreciated! I learn a lot of stuff here.
Paul