I did not come up with this I found the idea on the internet but I have not seen anything about it on AZ. A big tip to remove the pilot bearing with no mess or damage is to use bread!!
Heres how I did it. Took a couple pieces of bread and stuffed it in the pilot bearing hole till it was full. Then I took a 3/8 socket and a extension, with some heavy duty plastic to make a nice seal and packed the bread and repeated till the bearing was pushed out by the hydraulic effect. Worked great and no special tools required