himespau- 1) You thought of starting the cups with a hammer (and wood block between the hammer and cup) has been used by MANY before you. care with how you whack the edge of the cup will help keep it somewhat straight. Don't worry too much about some slight off straightness as this will be taken care of with the press. You could also press one cup in most all the way with the press tool. Again care in keeping the non cupped end of the tool straight with the HT end helps. You could also get a really long and big around threaded rod which still fits inside the tool's stepped pressure "plates" to act as a press. Don't forget to lube the cups and HT's surfaces.

2) If you test fit the caged bearings onto the cone you will see how one way the metal cage lip touches the cone and how the other way (the correct way) the balls will contact the cone.

3) ideally the crown race will take a few whacks to seat fully. But as long as it stays tight it's a moot point. If the crown race (BTW it's a "cone" too) is easy to rotate (when grabbed with a rag and channel locks) or begins to slide off the seat with only very light taps with a hammer (again some form of wood or other dent preventing between the hammer and race) then the crown race's fit is suspect. You can use a center punch on the cylindrical surface (the 26.4 which is really 26.5 for the slight interference fit) and dimple it around it's circumference to increase the fitting tightness. Andy.