Pinion gear removal and surprise

[creekindian]

I'm rebuilding the rear end and when I popped out the pinion gear I found these laying in the pinion housing area between the two pinion bearing locations. I can't find any info on these and no reference to these. See pics and help please?

 

[nelbur]

I found one of these shims in the bottom of my oil drain pan years ago.   I never could figure out where it came from.   I did work on my 8.8, which I later replaced with a junkyard rear end, which now needs to be replaced again.   I still don't know where in the rear end it came from.

 

[creekindian]

May be some factory assembly stuff left in by mistake?