Yeah, thanks, that's sort of what it's going to come down to at this point although at least it's not a wavebox that's the problem, just a stream on its own. Coleus on here had a 6100 for sale for the longest time, it's too bad mine decided to crap out a month after that one finally sold.
After poking around some more on the net this morning I've figured out the difference between the $255 replacement motor block and the $270 replacement motor block ... and of course it's the $270 one that I would need since it's the older style stream that I have. Funny that the older one is the more expensive but I think that's the explanation - it turns out you can't even get these from tunze.com anymore - totally discontinued. So the options are buy used, there do seem to be a few for sale over at RC at the moment, buy something else (Time to get a Vortech???) or buy the replacement motor block. But that last option seems like a non-starter. Check it out:
$270:
http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/tz...+6101.015.html
$332.35:
http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/tz...mp+-+6105.html
Unfortunate timing with the holidays around the corner and a recent streak of rather expensive unfortunate luck. I'm really feeling squeezed at the moment... for now I might just have to make do with whatever I can muster out of the junk drawer. Don't be too surprised if the next FTS there are about a hundred itty bitty powerheads all over the place in the tank .. I knew I was hanging onto all those things for a reason even if said reason wasn't entirely clear at the time..