I would start with the original pinion shim thickness and go from there. Guranteed your going to have to pull the shims more than once to get the pattern correct, this should be expected. I would highly reccommend a set of setup bearings so that way you dont accidently damage the bearings that will be permenant in the axle. Constantly pulling and pressing the bearings makes it highly likely that they will be damaged. Some will say take the old bearing and hone it out to be used for setup, but thats up to you. My opinion is that old bearings will have differnt tolerences than new ones and a set of "setup bearings" may save you a little headache when you attempt at your final pattern. Thats not to say that you when you use setup bearings and get a good pattern, then go to install the new bearing and then end up with a pattern thats a little off. Thats all part of axle setup, unfortunately there is really only one right way, there is no in between or it might be ok if I run it like that. I think your best bet will be just to use the oriignal pinion shims and start running some patterns, make large adjustments at first, I consider .08"-.010" seems to be a large adjustment then go from there and dial that badboy in. For the carrier shims I wouldnt worry about getting any carrier preload until after you get the backlash in, then you can add the necessary amount of shims for the required preload.
