I recorded my test of using a bearing press kit to extract the rear wheel bearings from the original rear knuckles, but it appears the audio portion of that camera was faulty. Rather than trying to do voice over work for a short demo video, I extracted a few screen shots from the video and I'll post those here. I zoomed in on the video footage to extract some of the pictures, so the image quality is not the greatest, but you can at least see what I'm talking about in each picture.
This is my experiment to see if the bearing press kit can handle the task of extracting the bearing from the knuckle. Using a shop press would be another way of doing this, but the outside surface of the knuckle does not lend itself to being placed on a flat surface. The only flat surface is the end of the knuckle where the bearing is being pushed out of which you cannot cover that opening otherwise the bearing will not get pressed out fully (or at all).
This is not meant to be a how-to, but merely an experiment I ran to see if this bearing press kit would handle the task. If you do this, you do so at your own risk.
I used an Orion Motor Tech 23-Piece "Front Wheel Drive" bearing puller/press kit. Here's my Amazon affiliate link to that product if you end up wanting to purchase it.
https://amzn.to/3l1ir6Y Since it is an affiliate link, my company will make a commission on that purchase but at no extra cost to you.
Removing the snap ring / c-clip on the outer part of the knuckle:
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I used the 2.94" / 74.7mm bushing to place against the inner race of the bearing on the back side of the knuckle. The knuckle has a lip on that side that does not allow the outer race of the bearing to be exposed so you must press on the inner race of the bearing (that was already destroyed by removing the stub axle/wheel hub).
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- caprice_pob_pic_02.jpg (369.93 KiB) Viewed 4141 times
To allow for the bearing outer race size to be pushed out successfully, I used the large sleeve (4" O.D.) and the large sleeve plate (4" O.D. x 3.2" step). Place the flat edge of the sleeve on the flat edge of the outside of the knuckle bearing cavity. It would be better (safer) to have a much larger sleeve that would fit outside of the entire bearing casing on that side of the knuckle, but the kit does not have any that are larger than the 4" O.D. sleeve.
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I tried the "manual" (not using an impact gun) approach to extract the bearing, but that did not work since I had to hold on to the knuckle and attempt to use the bearing press kit to push out the bearing. If the knuckle was still mounted on the car, it might be possible, but difficult because you cannot lubricate the bearing or knuckle surfaces. I ended up using my impact gun. The bearing press kit has a label on the inside of the storage case to not use an impact gun, but I didn't seem to have much choice. I made sure the press kit's bolt was well lubricated before attempting this method of bearing extraction. I also made sure the sleeve did not move off of the outside flat surface of the knuckle while attempting this procedure.
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After pressing out the bearing, you can see at the rear end of the bearing cavity in the knuckle the lip that the bear sits against on the rear/inner side of the knuckle.
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My experiment was a "success". It did press out the bearing, but I had to use the impact gun to achieve that result.
I now have two used knuckles that can be refurbished with new bushings and used again on another Caprice PPV.