I went back to the bearing puller idea again and gave it another try. I was pushing against the original nut (13/16"-20) with a socket on the side of it and I'm afraid it was not doing it any good. I didn't want to bugger it up.
Now I'm trying the slide hammer method. I made the adapter to my puller and gave it a few whacks but I think I'll hit it again (pun intended) tomorrow. i have some pb blaster hopefully soaking the splines.
