51-53 rear housings are all the same and have the bendix brakes. 54 and 55 may or may not work I don't know if anything was changed for those years. The bendix brakes won't fit on your huck backing plates. I think it would be worth your time to find a bendix rear housing or figure out whats wrong with the spider gears.
Are all the spider gears seated where they need to be in the housing? If you spin the ring gear without the pin in it the top and bottom gears can fall out and can be a struggle to put back in while its all together. Silly question did you put the correct axle shaft in each side? They are slightly different in length. The 48 axle shafts work fine in a later housing. If you have a spare torque tube with that axle housing I would consider just swapping those out and leaving your 53 housing. 48-53 torque tubes are the same but not 47. I can't imagine the housing got bent from just breaking an axle.
