So I’m ******* deep in my chassis restore and I go to put my axle shafts back in my freshly painted housing today and I cannot get the axles to seat far enough to get the wheels bearings in the axle tubes. When I used the bolts to tighten it down it was very hard to turn the flanges or the pinion yoke. I took it off and rechecked it a few times. It’s as though the bearing retainer is being held up by my new axle seals. I put my finger through the seal hole where the axle goes in and the seal is complete seated against the axle tube taper. Not sure what is going on here

Hmmm. I’ll have to go look. I literally used the seal puller to pull the old seals out, cleaned out the end of the tube and drove in the new seal. I even rechecked the indentation of the old seal before I installed it. I have the flat or painted portion of the seal towards the backing plate.