D-Oh! Way to go resurrecting an old thread from near death. To the new guy, Mr. weekend warrior, yes, you can measure the crush sleeve and then duplicate that with the solid bearing preload spacer length as a starting point. The end goal is to have the same preload on the bearings, so the torque required to spin the pinion should be similar and you'll need to adjust as required.
Rather than torquing the pinion nut each time, I just put it in the press, preload the bearings and check the torque as it's a lot quicker assuming you have access to a press IMO. I think I aimed for 15-20 in-lb with new bearings, slightly less with used bearings (10-15 in-lb). As for pinion nut torque, if we assume a 28-spline pinion then I run ~200 ft-lb with a solid bearing preload spacer.
Strange lists their specs
here, so I used that since I run one of their cases.