I had a carrier with the same marks. It was due to a front driveshaft being too long, I think. Originally I had 1-1/2" of compression left on the splines but my front springs settled after a hard wheeling trip and my shaft started bottoming out. I checked backlash and my pinion seemed solid. I took an inch out of the shaft and I'm pretty sure I'm ok now. It seems strange that the pinion would push in that much but it was the only thing I could come up with. Is there a chance that the shaft on that diff was too long?
