Help with Kelsey 5x8 Please

Kind folks of Briar Press,
I’m hoping you all can help me figure what is causing my press to bind up.

I took it all apart, de-rusted and cleaned it throroughly, cleaned up the IDs and ODs and just painted the main frame (being sure to keep the holes for shaft clean).

The roller hooks were bent, and chewed up a bit. I bent them back to very close to straight (like 1/32 or 3/64in variation across their length), filed off any burrs, and used oil and steel wool to get them as smooth as I could.

Without the rollers on the press, it moves pretty freely. When I put the rollers on, it gets hung up at the bottom and top of the rails/chase bed. This makes me think the roller hooks are getting bound up in the casting, either as a result of the slight imperfection of the hooks being a problem, or as a result of the casting being off too much. (Is the latter something frequently encountered?) It’s hard for me to tell…as the movement gets rough, I push on the hooks a bit to see if they’re tensed up…they are a bit, but not drastically.

One note…these hooks are quite a bit shorter than the ones on an older Kelsey press I have (the pre-N versions with the flat ends, which I’ve attached as well)…these hooks are 7in while the ones on the older Kelsey are 9in. Is this normal (I couldn’t find any specs)?

I ordered a new set of roller hooks yesterday, before I cleaned these up (though I had straightened them as well as I can). But now I’m wondering if perfectly straight hooks are going to actually resolve it.

I’ve attached a picture of the casting…the hole on one side is about 1/8 inch further in than the other…that’s about all I can tell. I’m just looking for ideas, in case the straight new roller hooks don’t solve this issue. Are there issues I could be overlooking? If not, has anyone ever had to drill out the holes just a bit bigger to avoid this binding?

If it helps to clarify anything, here’s a quick video of it:
https://youtu.be/TAthCytHu7U

Maybe I’m just being a wimp and it’s normal to have to apply this much pressure? It doesn’t seem like it though. Something seems to be binding.

Thanks so much for any guidance you all can provide.

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