fwiw, i have been working with a local manufacturer for a little while now. they do all my water-jet cutting and they also have a fairly new 4-axis mill. i had them machine out a split case for the low range gear set and it turned out beautiful. they're going to charge us $175 per case but would like to do 2-3 of them at a time.
so if anybody needs a case machined, then you're welcome to send me the CLEANED case half ( rear only ) and i'll get it machined. i have a few spare case halves here. might get a few done ( while keeping the matching half for the machined counterpart ) to offer as an exchange-type unit. i guess we'll have to see how much interest there is.
hth
georg @ valley hybrids