Assembling the pinion to the housing was interesting due to the decision to replace the crush washer with shims. This would allow for repeatable results if it were ever rebuilt again, and would allow for the shims to be reused like the shims elsewhere in this assembly.

Nailing down the shim thickness took several iterations to reach near the 15 lb-in of rolling resistance of the pinion itself. These shim stacks tested ranged from 0.010" to 0.015" of shim in 0.001" increments.

We ended up settling on a 0.013" shim stack. As 0.012" shims had negligible rolling resistance, and 0.013" had a rolling resistance of 30 lb-in. If I remember correctly.

Assembly of the carrier in the housing went well! We managed to have 0.004" of backlash in the ring gear and a textbook gear contact patch. After this check, we called it a night.

My buddy conducted the final steps the next day. Where he installed the 0.002" shim on either side of the carrier to lock the run out in place. After which, he applied the gasket, and torqued it down to finish the assembly.

When it was finally installed in his Mustang, the results were immaculate. And the car responded well to the refreshed rear diff.