Pivot / spigot bearing : needle or ball bearing

[jeme9]

Current crank shaft has spacer / reducer from 32mm and then a needle bearing, although the cage and needles had separated from the needle bearing sleeve. I bought the engine so not sure when this had happened.
I am nervous about a new needle bearing also coming apart when installing gearbox.

If I was to go for ball bearing type, I would need to remove spacer / reducer from the crank.
Question has anyone had success in removing the spacer (sounds like it is harder than removing a ball bearing).

 

[Stevehose]

Looks like it would come out with the slide hammer style bearing remover. Trick is finding one with extensions small enough to fit through the hole and catch the back end. Something like this:

https://www.harborfreight.com/slide-hammer-and-bearing-puller-set-5-pc-62601.html

 

[Drew20]

One trick I've used to remove bushes from blind recesss is to pack the recess out with grease and then hammer a rod through the bushing, the hydraulic pressure forces out the bush. Rod needs to be a tight fit on the ID of the bush of course.

Don't know if the recess is blind however, obviously this won't work if the grease has an escape route