The bearings seldom wears out unless oil is lacking for extended periods, but tends to have excessive clearance due to the flange nut losing its torque. They are a close fit but not that tight to require bench pressing.
After removing the flange joints, retightening the nut would usually resolve the excessive clearance problem as the bearings are conical type and adjustable.
Bad U joints would cause vibrations and over time they would cause the flange nut to be loosened so that should be resolved before replacing the oil seal and retorquing.
Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 AT 6:36 AM