Originally Posted by wstar

Let me know how it goes. I've had to chase gremlins like this before on my car; it's no fun and can get frustrating, but there is a rational answer in there somewhere.

FWIW: I don't think hammering out studs is generally going to destroy your bearings, assuming it's done with a little care and they're not ridiculously stuck in there, but I guess you never know. Since I swap my studs out relatively-often, I've switched to using a ball-joint separator tool ( exactly like this one: http://www.harborfreight.com/media/c...mage_12294.jpg ) to press them out. You put the forked end behind and around the head of the stud, and the single end on the threaded end, then just tighten it down.