Yeah, in retrospect the scout II axles may have been a poor choice. They have certainly posed a variety of challenges.

I ran the jeep with 5 degree caster shims and no front driveshaft for a while to see how much I wanted. It still needed a little help centering, so I permanently corrected the caster by grinding the yokes off and setting them at 6 degrees. Hopefully with this approach I won't have any pinion angle/driveshaft issues.

That's a good call on the brake wear, I didn't think about that. The scout caliper brackets are similar to the early style CJ as you described, hence the shim, and I have the late model brackets. I guess the solution is the ball joint bushings. Thanks.