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Hey guys, I recently picked up a used 2012 CRF250X and after reworking the fork legs and putting everything back together my front wheel seems to be hard to rotate by hand. I’ve pulled the caliper and tried to rotate it with the same drag. It doesn’t get any easier unless I loosen the axle nut but when I begin to tighten it back down to 65 ft lbs it starts getting hard to turn again. It also squeaks a bit coming from the right side where the odometer cable hooks up. What could I be doing wrong? I torque the axle nut first to 65 lb ft, I torque the left side pinch bolts to 14 lb ft, let the bike off the stand and push the forks up and down while holding the brake, and last torque the right side pinch bolts to 14 lb ft as well.

Welcome to the site !!

What you need to do is remove the front wheel , and just install the axle without the nut , then take 1 of the forks and loosen it , just enough so you can move it but it will stay in place on its own or with slight holding , then slightly move the fork up or down , and try to slide the axle in , when the axle moves freely in/out (you may have to twist the fork lug slightly to get a straight shot into the hole), then snug the fork , and torque to spec , your wheel should now spin freely , its fork bind that your experiencing .... ,

Sometimes the rebound nut is not assembled in the same position on the rebound rod as before and what happens is it will make the fork a slightly different length than the other , when you try to even up at the top , it is not the same overall length as the other fork and the axle will bind because 1 lug is lower/higher than the other , so the wheel is binding when you tighten it down , you can "fix" the issue by resetting the rebound nut to the rebound rod(each turn will shorten or lengthen , the manual explains how to set and measure it properly) , then when assembled measure from the outer fork leg/seal to the fork lug , the distance should be the exact same on both forks , if not readjust till it is even 1/8 turn makes a difference , but again you should adjust it as the manual explains and you should be good , then you can go back to setting the forks by how far they stick out of the top clamp

Just a couple things you can also check in addition to Jim's suggestions.
Maybe look into the spacers are their orientation. Also the speedometer drive assy. maybe is not notched into the right orientation.