He cant tell you the gears are fine until its apart and he should know that. If the differential grenaded i am secure to tell you the output shaft prolly has damage.

What you can do. Unless your brother has experience rebuilding transmissions (judging by his jumping to assumptions i would say not much), pull your trans, remove the bellhousing and diff and ship me the gear set. I have the spare parts to go through it and replace whats damaged. In the mean time you can buy a new bellhousing from one of the neon guys, if you need a diff eclipsemoneypit has one for sale now for 75.00.

If you can find a replacement for 450.00 then go for it but you might find its hard to find them at times. like i said most of the time they go for 500 on average + shipping.

I will have one for sale shortly after i go through it, but i will want 550.00 shipped

Terry