Rear axle noise

The other night I heard a harmonic rumble from the drive train. Did the standard diagnostic stuff and figured it was a pinion bearing. I had rebuilt the axle about 2 years ago and was surprised and disappointed that I was having a problem so soon. Anyway, tore it apart and found the front pinion bearing had one roller chewed up. This of course had contaminated the oil and burnished the other bearings and I changed all the bearings, but putting the pinion back with a new crush sleeve I couldn't get the crush sleeve to pull up. I had something around 250 ft lbs and still no crush. I took out the crush sleeve and tried to smash the sleeve in a vice. Still couldn't crush the sleeve even in the vice. I ended up taking the old sleeve sliding it onto a steel piece of round stock and smacking it with a hammer a couple times making it slightly longer again. I don't recommend doing this and hesitate mentioning it but hey it's what I did. Stuck everything back together and it looks good. I still need to put the wheels back on and get her back on the ground. I ran it for a few minutes and the rear end is completely quiet and smooth as silk. I'll run it for about 10 miles and check the temperature before calling it fixed. I put Timken bearings back in this time but it was clear to me a manufacturer's defect that killed the bearing. I'll have to do some research to determine if there are any quality issues with some of their bearings.