Thanks for all the replies. I filled (possibly over-filled) my trans to the point the oil was starting to come back out the fill hole some time ago. I have checked it each time I have re-done the ball seal and it has not gone down much. This is over a span of about 2000 miles. When I first put the truck together I had painted the ball. This is when it leaked the worst. The second time I cleaned all the paint off and had to replace the u-joint because it was galled. Either oil is not coming from the trans or it was leaking too fast. The ball leaking greatly diminished after this. The 3rd time was during an attempt to attack all the minor oil leaks in the truck. I spent a lot of time sanding the ball down to 1000 grit. That seemed like overkill but I could get a silver color and the sandpaper so I kept at it. I do check the shimming each time since I have to remove the u-joint and drop the torque tube each time to replace the seals and gaskets.

I think I will just proceed with the thought that as long as I have a small leak there must be enough oil.