You could try opening the torque limits up a bit on the run settings,even if they are the same as when run otherwise.
Has your man in the field checked that the bowl is turning freely?
Not meaning to sound derogatory but if it's tripping on o/c immediately my guess is something's pretty tight to cause that or as you thought a drive issue.
Have to be honest until very recently I never bothered to remove tails to test which I know is wrong but I've never suffered a drive issue from it.
Good luck and keep us posted how you got on.
Ps,is there another drive nearby that you could swap just to prove it out?particularly as it's such a simple set up?
I'd also be tempted to bell out the motor again on continuity first just to check nothing silly happened when putting covers back etc as it's often easy to go off down certain routes just because it's the obvious,we've all done it.