New gear cases for direct drive washers
Are still just fine they’re made exactly like they always were. There are no more plastic parts than they used to be.
That said they did try a new oil about five years ago that was much lighter and it made them very noisy. They have switched back to a regular oil.
We were given 28 gear cases by the local parts distributor about three years ago. They thought they were leaking oil, but it turned out they were just fine. A lot of the boxes had oil on them and they assumed that the gear cases were defective.
We inspected them resealed the covers. We have used about 20 of the 28 by now and have had zero problems with them so I would not be afraid of buying a new one, but I do believe new ones are more than $250
Current part number is 3360629 and in the DC area list for $262 but you may be able to find a deal, I would not be afraid of fixing your old one, however.
John L