ORIGINAL: SAVAGEJIM
For your new bearings, did you get bearing oil? I highly suggest whenever anyone replaces their bearing, or even in a brand new RC, to get bearing oil and lube up te bearins. Dont trust the factory to have lubed them for you.
As for the stiffness in the front rotating, I am stumped here. Aside form setscures and all, have you also inspected teh CVs/drivecups & dog bones? If those are bent, they can make for very rough turning and wobbling. Also, look at the chassis: is the front half of teh RC bent or out of shape in any way? A bent chassis can cause problems by making the CVs/shafts/dogbones&cups go out of alignment, thus also making for hard rotainint of the drivetrain.
I haven't replaced the bearings, diff housing ones smooth by hand, even under pressure. The two in the diff case on the other hand are slightly notchy, so I've got 10 rubber sealed bearings on the way to replace them. I still don't think this would cause the real tough amount of friction in one spot as they rotate pretty smooth still (even under load, just I can feel bumps so no good).
Normally the factories lube them with grease, specially sealed ones? I'll check them anyway, do the rubber seals pull off without damage?
I have some diff cases on the way too, just in case the front one is a bit tweaked. It does the same when out of the truggy, just moving by hand while holding both case halves together even.
I also brought some shims so I can shim it for hardly any backlash.