Removing armature and bearings on HLV-H carriage power drive

I am replacing the 4 bearings in a Hardinge HLV-H carriage power drive. There are 2 at either end of the armature, and 2 in a capsule whose axis is at a right angle to the armature and contains the worm driven gear and the gearbox output gear.

The bearing I'm having trouble with is the inboard armature bearing, that is, the armature bearing closest to the worm gear.

Best I can come up with so far is to remove the outboard armature bearing first, and then put a slide hammer on the armature to pull it away from the gearbox. If someone else has a better idea, I'd sure like to hear it. Also, down in the bottom left of the attached picture there are 2 holes in the gearbox casting. The upper small one seems to be a vent for the motor case, but the lower one seems strange: it's bored all the way through to the outside shell of the bearing, but in situ it is pointed downwards so it's not a defunct oiler hole. Anybody know what it was for?

Thanks very much!
Dave

Sorry, I can not help on the motor. I maybe seeing things but is that rust on the outside of the armature? If so change to cutting oil soon as water based coolants can cause serious damage to the bond holding the turcite to the carriage. If I am mistaken about the rust pardon me, just trying to help where I can.

On my HLV (no -H), the armature and its bearing pulled out of the drive-end housing with firm hand force. If that doesn't work, tap the worm end with a rawhide or similar soft hammer until it does. If you are replacing all of the bearings, you don't need to be squeamish, so long as you don't mar the shaft or the worm.

As for the holes, They are both drain holes. A small amount of ATF can get past the seals on the output shaft. It helps for that to be able to leak out at the bottom of the motor casing.

FredC,Mark Rand,
Best regards,
Dave