After fighting my axles all weekend, I got them in. The left side axle went in fine and I was able to bolt the bearing retainer plate on to set the proper bearing preload. The right side however fought me. After putting it in and pulling it back out no less than 6 times, I gave up for the weekend and waited to call dutchman this morning when they opened shop in Idaho at 730. I probably spent 6 hours on it and I was at my wits end. I measured the bore and measured the bearing race with digital calipers to make sure it was fully seated and it was but I was still getting a gap around the retainer plate. Dutchman thought there was a chance the axle could be just a hair too long with the open diff. Kinda frustrating seeing as they manufactured the housing and axles from scratch (third member is made by strange engineering).
I chucked it in my big lathe with a live center and carefully (with lots of coolant) turned down 1/8 off the end. I swapped it to my smaller lathe that the axle shaft will fit through the headstock and faced the last little bit I couldn't get with the live center in the way. They are case hardened so I went slow and took my time.
That was the ticket I guess because it slid right in and the bearing retainer is flush with the backing plate now. All that's left is to swap the plain nuts for the lock nuts.
Attached photo is before I turned 1/8" off the end of the axle shaft showing the gap between the bearing retainer and backing plate. It was putting way too much preload on the bearing and completely locking the axle up. This is about 10ftlbs torque.
