[Goat Blower]

Geez, I thought weekly visits to the hospital for me and the wife was bad.

On a positive note, swapping the rear diff is not that difficult or expensive, I wouldn't total the car based on that. If your axle splines aren't jacked up, you can just swap the pumpkin itself. My old neighbor did his on a 95 GSX automatic and he got the pumpkin for a couple hundred and had it swapped out over a weekend. Should be easier than a clutch swap.

And get rid of that welded VC for the street, they are bad news for drivetrain components. I would say with 99% confidence that was the cause of your problem.