When something doenst work or its broken...upgrade it! buy a heavy duty dif cover !!

EDIT: same thing happened to me when i lifted my 2wd cherokee. The angle on the driveshaft made the rear seal on the trans leak. with a slanted driveway, parking backwards made the trans not leak! spend a whole few months parking backwards. but like i said. when it broke, it converted it to 4wd :P

 

Impact wrenches are your friend if you're worried about snapping bolts (sounds silly but its true). Soak them with pb blaster also. IMO i would take the cover off and deal with it in my driveway rather then find out it was bad on the side of a trail.