TT:
Mine has an intermittant leak. When I first noticed it I was out of town. It was dripping one drip every 30 seconds, truck was not even running, appeared to be from the front shaft/seal I checked after each stop. It stopped after my second stop. Then a few days later it started again but only seemed to leak while it was running. That is when I called Bill. I did his procedure and it stopped leaking. However it started again and is still intermittant. Sometimes more, sometimes less, sometimes not at all. I called Bill again to ask for help and he was out of the office but Crystal said they would just send out a new one. So I am waiting on it it to arrive.
I told Bill I had about 3/4 deflection and he said that was too tight. He said he thought his had about 1 1/4 deflection and was almost sloppy. So that is how I set mine when I reinstalled after cleaning it. It is pretty loose but as you stated it is a cog type and it doesnt slip. I am sure you could just let the hoses drain into a pan. I wrapped both hoses with a few turns of electrical tape and used some vise grips to clamp(had them set to be just tight enough and a light squeeze shut them not gorilla type strength to squeeze them) them shut which worked for me.
He mentioned the boots but did not give me further indication of when they might be available.