12 bolt ring and pinion question

[mrobvious34]

I have a question for anyone good with setting up a ring and pinion. I have a 67 C10 and I swapped out the worn out 3.07s and open diff for a Yukon limited slip and 3.73s. When setting up my pinion, the gear was engraved with a depth of 2.751. I got it dead on and my backlash set at .006. When checking the mesh with gear marking compound it indicated that the pinion was too far from the ring and need more shims between the pinion and bearing. I added more shims and got the gear pattern looking good and backlash set at .007. My question is, is it ok that my pinion depth isn’t what the manufacturer says it should be as long as my gear pattern looks good? I ended up with a pinion depth of 2.730 instead of 2.751. Second question, when did gm switch to the wider rear end? I got moser axles for a 67 but they are too short. I’m guessing the rear has been swapped at some point but I can’t find any ID numbers on the axle