Your doing things out of order
First do the pinion----Then pinion depth---then adjust the carrier bearings over until no slack on the tooth contact between pinion and ring gear---then tighten the right side carrier bearing adjuster until you get the backlash you need--this will give you the correct amount of carrier bearing preload---
Some hints----take a old used pinion nut and grind or cut off the crimped lock portion so you can go on and off easy---set pinion load with out the seal and add it after you come up with spacer thickness for preload, then add seal and new pinion nut to proper torque
use two sets of feeler guages to shim out the pinion support to find the right pinion depth, then replace with the ford shims
oil the carrier adjuster nuts so they will turn easier
oil the bearings also
if your not happy with the way it turns out do it over, and over, and over