A while ago I purchased a set of gears for the bike after seeing 6th was damaged and no sensibly priced single gear replacements were available. Looked at the set last night and I realised I've been 'done'! The countershaft is supposed to have a press fitted seal inside at both ends and on my replacement set, one end had been punched through (screwdriver?) and the other end was missing. Unfortunately I know this set is off a 14k mile bike and it's in much better condition than the one I took out. There's no wear at all on the needle bearing end.
So I have my old knackered one with intact plugs in, and the new one without. I expect a local machine shop could fix something in either end, but I wondered if there was a technique for removing these plugs that didn't involve a screwdriver punching one out, so I could reuse?