Doug,
Here's my take on it:
Everything was great until I installed the Mini truck Aisin lockout flange like some other folks here. My reasons for using the Aisin were two folds: I was getting a drveishaft vibe from the front and to save some mpg on a 4,000+ plus roadtrip last Xmas.
These flanges don't pull the axle all the way out like the stock flanges do. Yesterday, I mimicked the stock axle location by using four C clips; three on top of the splines (behind the groove), one in the groove. This puts the axle in same location as oem flange, however, the Aisin outer dial (lock/free) wouldn't fit as needed. Meaning, that there's a dust cover inside the dial that's hitting the tip of the axle. I think the Aisin lockout hubs was discussed in a prior thread some time ago. The conclusion at that time was to mill the end of the axle down in order to accomodate the Aisin hubs properly. Or mill another C clip groove, further outward than the oem groove, or perhaps extend the oem groove.
Since i wasn't able to use four C clips, I been using only two. Even using three clips prevented the Aisin outer to go on properly. With only two clips, the axial movement was a hair over 0.19" (see math below), perhaps a bit more. While drivng with the hubs "locked", the axle moved toward the diff and the bell rubbed the ceiling of the housing. Obviously some of the metal shavings were picked up by the ABS magnet. Perhaps the seal got damaged from the shavings, I don't know. The covered magnet explains my occasion ABS freakout during stops. Incidentally, the passenger side magnet had some shavings but not nearly as much. That side doesn't have birf soup that I can tell.
Math for determining axial play:
One C clip is .095". So using three C clips behind the groove is: .095" *3 = 0.285". Since I was using only one behind the groove, the axle movement was at least: 0.285" - 0.095" =
0.19" (+/-) .
0.19" was enough for the bell to contact the housing. There isn't a whole lot of play in there. If this was a Land Rover

, this wouldn't matter but uncle Toyota likes his tolerances to be precise !
For right now, I'm using the oem flange until things are sorted out. If there's a way to either mill down the internal dust cap then I'll go back to the Aisins. I could machine out a spacer to go behind the oem C clip groove but that wouldn't solve all of my problems.
So, I guess for those of you Aisins, take a look at the ABS sensor for metal shavings. If you got shavings, then you probably have the same issue as me.
I'm attaching the Birfield diagram that I got from this board in the past for everyone's reference. Also attached is a pic of the internal dust cap/dome that's preventing me from using four clips (three behind the groove + 1 in the groove).
Ali