I have been dragging my feet on reassembly just because I am in no rush as there is still snow on the ground and I want to make sure I have enough knowledge before I go after it.

The only thing I am not 100% on is after making the dummy bearings and checking the pattern you reassemble with the calculated shims and reinstall the pinion with the crush sleave, once preload is achieved do you remove the pinion nut then install the oil seal? This is how it seems in the videos I watched, doesn't removing the nut lose preload? Or is the object initially just getting the sleeve crushed and once it is done putting the seal on and retorqueing the nut is easy??