A bunch of great ideas, thank you everyone. I will not have a chance to tinker on it today, but likely will tomorrow.
Based on the information being shared I’m getting the feeling that a malfunctioning axle/wheel isolation combo may be the culprit, as the MTH axle sets seem to have the gears and bushings manufactured on them, and only seem to mate to certain positions in the truck (I’m assuming this is the case) so they couldn’t be installed in a mis-matched configuration ? (Again, I’m assuming this is the case)