I removed one of mine with the slide hammer and the bearings were fine. Using an old rotor is doing the same thing. IIRC, the FSM shows the use of a slide hammer to remove the axle. I chucked the hub (and bearing) in the lathe and polished them to make assembly a little easier. The axle was a very tight fit on the inner bearing.

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'83 300D, 126K miles.