Originally Posted by
UniChris
"Wavy washers" are very much a thing for achieving light preload, I'd keep that unless you feel it's worn out, in which case you might check McMaster-Carr which calls them "wave disc springs".
While one can indeed typically pop off the seals with the point of a knife and put some grease in there, sealed bearings are cheap. And if the disassembly process applied any axial load between inner and outer races, they're toast now even if they weren't before.
You can preheat the new ones to "can barely touch" temperature to make putting them on a close fitting shaft easier.
But if you ever end up having to "drive" a bearing that you still want to use, make sure you're using a ring of something that's pushing on the race you're trying to move, NOT the other one, as that out of spec axial load between races will damage them.
More common is warming up the hubshell/freehub body for easier install, axle fit is usually a slightly easier fit then the shell's. I've also placed the axle in the freezer before it's install. Andy