Thanks @matzell, I'm leaning that way at this point. WRT the solid spacer suggestion, the original pinion has the shoulder for the original spacer and shims. I have a solid Nitro spacer for the '90 and older 9.5" diff, but it doesn't fit on the original pinion (I checked). I was planning on...
Ignoring cost, should I replace my stock ring and pinion with modern (e.g., Sierra) stuff?
Backstory:
- The diff is out and completely stripped down on my bench.
- The backlash was high (avg ~0.014"), but consistent.
- The runout was about 0.004".
- Paint pattern looked even but shallow...