Weird rear wheel bearing circlip issue

Have found PVC coupler worked well for seating the seal.

Is the axle mating surface for the seal damaged and a nick is catching the edge? That would be a concern for leaking. Have used Permatex 2 on outer lip of seals to help ensure mating surface sealing.

 

I was using a 59mm seal press and a deadblow. I ended up purchasing 5 different seals and put them all in the freezer for 48hrs. I also used 400 amd 1500 grit sandpaper to the housing to smooth out any nicks before heating the housing up with a torch and tappy tap tapped the smallest diameter of the seals into the housing pretty easily. The BCA from rockauto ended up being the one installed. The other 4 were Timken, SKF, Schaeffler, and Beck Arnley so if anyone in Western WA needs axles seals PM me

 

Does anyone know how far the splines are supposed to engage? I've read a general rule of thumb is axle diameter=depth of engagement. I filed them for about an hour and the shaft slides in easy now with gear lube on the tip but still won't go the rest of the way, about 1/2in proud. I hit it a bit with a deadblow and I'm reluctant to hit it more as I've broken some things by doing that in the past.
I also tried tightening the nuts of the 4 mounting studs a little at a time and the result was the bearing getting pressed through the hub

 

If you have over an inch of engagement and the bearing/axle end is flush with the housing, you're good to go.

They typically only engage 70-80%.