I'm not gonna get on my soap box here, but.. You have a modified vehicle that you have admittedly been hard on.
Things wear out. This ain't your Honda Civic anymore.. you need to stay on top of things, and accept the fact that parts are going to wear out and fail faster than they would on a stock vehicle.
It sucks, and as usual, it's never the right time for something to fail.
My first car was a TOTAL money pit.. wheel bearings every year, CV joints every 6 months, shifter linkages seemingly every few months, and, um, ahem, a clutch every year or so as well. Why? I was hard as hell on it, had modified the engine, and had lowered it ALOT, putting tons of stress on the front end parts.