Cannot remove the steering column bearing. Frustrated.

I just did this exact same thing last year on my 75 D100 and after removing the snap ring, the bearing just came right out after pulling on the column cover.

Fast forward to today and I've wasted an entire day on this thing. I have the snap ring removed and this bearing wont even budge when I try to take it out.

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I tried to use one of those pullers to pull the thing out with the column cover but it took too much pressure and I didn't want to break the cover so I looked at the FSM and made the tool in Fig. 8 that it says to use to press it out. I tightened the hell out of it to the point where I felt like I was going to strip the screws out if I kept going so I gave up and am now asking for help. Is there something stupid that I'm forgetting here?

I also can't push the two column covers back together anymore. There's about 1/4" gap in between the two and I can't see anything back there that's causing them not to come back together.