oo, good question on shims vs. crush sleeve. i never took the pinions out of my sportage diffs, just the dana 44's when i swapped gears, so, i can't tell you. but i guess you told me. i don't even know quite exactly how a crush sleeve works other than the fact it crushes slightly when tightened down.

as for whether or not the t-case has a differential, just go look at kungpow's photos of his t-case that he had to take apart because the chain got tangled up in some loose bolts and chewed itself to death. they are posted in a thread or 2 here and they are also at his cardomain page.