Alpha Gen 2 Upper Shims

[Tclark18]

Hoping for an answer. I have a 2001 Alpha Gen 2 drive on a 225 weekender. Drive has approx 350 hrs. I have owned boat for 5 years and done all required maintenance on drive. Running like a champ until this past summer. I noticed a very slight amount of gear lube loss from bottle at engine. It was minimal so I just said I will inspect when I pull boat at end of season. Through the summer I added probably 8 ozs. total. Well come to find out when I pulled the drive that the oil was sitting in my u joint bellows. With that said I pulled the upper gear drive to change the upper carrier seal, doing the whole upper. Question I have is when I pulled U joint assembly and bearings from upper there was only the spacer ring, no shims. Can this be?. It has always been silent, no grinding and the gears are in relatively good shape. See pics...Thanks