Rear diff noise, hard to turn axle and driveshaft

Looks like I made another goof. I just did the cobra brake swap with new axle bearings and I replaced the pinion seal and trac loc before that. I didn't notice this problem before the brake swap, but maybe I wasn't playing attention? So, if I turn the axles or driveshaft in the forwards direction it is very tough to turn. If a spin the driveshaft in reverse it feels fine, very easy. If I spin an axle in reverse, it's easy but I hear a crunchy noise in the diff. I tried my best to get the pinion nut back on in the same spot (with a little extra oomf). Could I have wrecked the crush washer by accident and it's catastrophic?? I'm asking today because that outside of skill set to replace. But could it be something I can fix? Like I didn't put the trac loc together properly? Or I knocked something loose when I used a slide hammer on the axle bearings? BTW the car is still in the build stages so I'm not driving it, nor can I lol

AeroCoupe said:

This is why I don’t use crush washers. Had a pinion seal leak a little while ago and swapped it out with zero issues. I run Ra-Tech solid spacers with shims.

4105

I understand this is possibly a day late and dollar short in this case but thought I would post it for future use.

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A day late in respect to me not measuring the crush washer to get a shim? I mean, atleast I didn't drive it.. the gears must be fine still. I guess I'm going to have to dump out the new gear oil for the second time and dive in. Just when I get the friction modifier smell out, it drags me back in! 15 bucks? I wish I knew sooner. Would the consensus be that I muffed the backlash? The noise it makes is cringeworthy.

limp said:

Did you reuse the crush washer? These are one time use only items..

I only use solid spacers like what Aerocoupe does....

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All I did was replace the pinion seal following the instructions from lmr's video carefully. But I also replaced the trac loc and axle bearings