I think that all the fluid squirted out when the case blew because there was a huge cloud of mist behind the car when it went. I am wondering if the front shaft had already started to go because I felt a large thud or slap under the truck a few weeks ago but I thought I had ran over something and nothing under the truck looked damaged. Of course the transfer case is hidden by the skid plates and I didn't see anything obvious.

While I am all about educating myself, this is going to be an expensive educational experience about the working of an AWD system and the absolute importance of checking and changing vehicle fluids.

 

unfortunately, yes this is going to be an expensive learning experience, however you havnt missed any scheduled fluid changes on the t-case, my owners manual calls for the first change at 100k miles with the trans fluid(makes sense as they both use ATF+4)