Ok we all know the trick with Escort type spigot bearing removal, whether it be just demolish it and pull the remains out or go the pack it with grease and ram a metal bar thru to push the grease and bearing out (hydraulic method) ,bread, soap, playdough etc can do the same job.
But when your pilot bearing came apart or exploded at some point 200,000-300,000kms ago and is of the wheel bearing type, rx7, falcon, commodore and most modern stuff on the road, mine came out in bits leaving the outer hardened casing seized in the crankshaft without much rear lip to get any purchase on so those mini pullers won't work (they hardly work as intended) .
I needed to swap the gearbox in my Courier 4x4 as it wasn't changing gears nicely and wouldn't let me gear down unless I match the revs so I found another box and got ready to swap them over, the seller threw in the clutch as well which was nice. Once the gearbox was removed using a motorbike hoist to help lower it down, they heavy boxes complete with transfer case etc I checked the boxes and only need to swap the speedo from elec to cable which was simply remove the connector. I got on to removing the clutch, as the truck has done over 330,000km I thought best to do the clutch as well , on removing it, heaps of bearings fell out and a casing and inner bearing case, not good news lol. Anyway I went searching answers on how to remove the outer casing, answers with using a Smoke wrench, to weld a dob and the heat will shrink upon cooling letting it free up...I went the diegrinder method, a bit agricultural but done the trick in less than 5mins, just grind into the casing until it looks nearly thru and chip it with a chisel or screwdriver, mine jumped out without a fight.
