You would need to reinstall the thrust buttons but you had the problem before you took em out. Likely you could fish em up & out with a magnet on a pole and some string but I think you'd need the pig out to reinstall em. If the housing/axle length is unaltered & the thrust button(s) were in place then as you said I would take a somewhat closeup pic of the shaft/bearing area behind the flange at just the right distance & see if the dimentions/distances tells one of us something