Having recently had an IRD failure i have acquired a replacement to put on while i try to rebuild the old one .
I collected the unit yesterday ,today i have got it up onto the bench to inspect it , i have found tired oil seals and what looks like an attempted oil leak repair around the casing on what would be the o/s end plus a length of what can only be described as swarf inside where the o/s drive shaft would go .
I investigate the two iffy bits further by removing the end casing ,the first thing i found was the casing was simply sealed by this black sort of hylimar stuff ,is this how it should be ?
and upo removing the planetary gears and diff setup complete with shafts the swarf (just one piece) seems to be from the inner side of the bearing adjacent to the diff palnetary gear casing cage i am not sure if this is part of a bearing case or the metalwork surrounding it
Upon draining the oil the magnetic plug had a fair amount of very fine stuff on it but no large broken off bits .

so what i am asking is
a what are the casing faces normally jointed with ? (gasket ? wellseal ? blue hylimar?)
b What is the shard of metal inside the planetary cage just above my thumb in pic where the o/s drive shaft goes ? (sorry didnt photo that)

Happy new year all
Shawn