It almost looks like where the teeth were ground down to get the cross shaft in.
I concur.
Yeah, but there doesn't look like there's any clearance issue with that big carrier. What gears are they Alex? Chris, did you have to shave the teeth on the 4.88s when you had them installed? There's so much room between the ring gear and the pin, I don't think there should be clearance issues with any ratio in the 8.8 ...