Sure throws up red flags to me.

The most chronic ailment that caused the 8 1/4 and the 9 1/4 failure was the pinion nut backing off. I don't know if it was caused by a failed crush sleeve, or a defective nut, pinion threads, or the pinion nut not quite torqued to specs (over tightened or under tightened). That 498 case has the crush sleeve that may be damaged.

With those, as the nut backed off, the pinion would slip back into the housing, and work its way back and forth until something bound up and failed. The first thing you noticed was when you shifted from a forward to reverse vehicle movement, or reverse to a forward vehicle movement, you could hear what sounded like a U joint going bad with an auditable clank. The clank was the pinion moving back and forth against the ring gear and the crush sleeve, but most people looked at the U joints, which were probably OK.

I'm suspecting that when you can see the gap between the yoke and the housing, you would find the pinion nut can be easily tightened with a wrench (at least the one's I've seen could be).The concern would be how much damage has been done by the pinion shifting back and forth ever time the vehicle is driven in the other direction.