I did the rear bearings on my T100 (same axle design) The first tool I built was too light, ripped out the welds. Made a much heavier tool, pretty much identical to the OTC and such tools you see. That did the trick. I used heavy flat plate, matched the bolt pattern on the back of the bearing retainer, cut a large hole in the middle. Super duper wleded some 3 inch pipe to that that, then welded some channel on the end of that with a hole through it that would slide up through the press and turn to hold it. One side was like a rifle shot going off when it let go.
I watched the youtube vids and stuff. I tried the BFH approach, the beat the axle on a wood block approach, the drop method, etc... All it did was hurt my hands and bend the brake backing plate all up. As I said, after that one let go with so much force, there was no way I was going to get it without a press. I did it with the cheapy HF 12 ton model. I think I had to take the bottom spreader off to get it in the press.
I don't know if it is a bad design, my truck had 250K+ miles on the rear bearings and they weren't really fried. I just did them as preventative, they probably would have lasted a lot longer. My FZJ80 on the other hand, bearings were never touched for 130K miles. Bearings were crap when I took them out for service, seals gone, oil all over. Was on a time budget, so I repacked what I had and put it back together. Tore it back down last summer and replaced the bearings, but the fretting wear on the welded spindle of the housing is a real issue now at 180K. New bearings helped, but I still struggled to get a good preload on the worn spindle. I actually used the punch trick and dimpled the bottoms and sanded them down till the bearings fit tighter. Repairing that takes a new axle housing. I wish those spindles bolted on like the fronts, that would be better, but not as strong.
