I've been skimming through a lot of these kinds of threads on here and at Yotatech, as I'm faced with dealing with this same issue on my new-to-me '01 4runner. I have a buddy that his wife is a service writer at a local stealership, so she offered to get the parts for me under her account (employ-ee discount)
Parts were ordered per my VIN. Local automotive machine shop had a shop made version of the bearing removal tool, I gladly paid them the $40 to take it all apart. Today I got to start reassembling and immediately had an issue with the new axle shaft "dust shields" not wanting to pop back into the bearing housings. A few measurements and a visual comparison to the old parts showed me that the old parts were different. ( Something to do with type "A" and type "B" versions). A call to a closer dealerships parts dept told me that they had the other type of seal, so I go there and ask them to verify that if the new seal is different from what I took apart, what else might be different.
Turns out that the old dust seal, bearing and bearing housing are supposedly different and that they are the "old design", meaning that the axle under my '01 is from a '95- early '00. The "correct" bearing per my VIN has an extended shoulder on the lower race, the bearings that came out of the axle shafts had no such extended lower shoulder. I was told from the parts person that the difference is either an ABS or non ABS axle housing, and that the old bearing that I had is for a non-ABS axle. Well, my housing is in-fact an ABS axle, I took the sensors out myself.
As I go through all of these rear axle bearing threads, I see absolutely no mention of different bearings, depending on ABS or non-ABS or by an "early" design or a later "updated" design. Can anyone verify which bearing is used, and more importantly, if the bearing with the shoulder on the lower race is the one that gets used, does that shoulder face towards the wheel flange or inboard towards the diffy? When I eye-balled that bearing on my axle shaft it just doesn't seem like that extended shoulder will work correctly on the axle shaft, it will cause the inner retainer ring to block the groove for the snap ring.
I got absolutely no help from the dealership that I got the parts from, they have the attitude that if the parts that were ordered per my VIN don't match, then I must have an aftermarket axle shaft and I'll need to figure out where to get parts from on my own or buy all new Toyota parts. ( i.e.- axle ahaft, bearing, seals housing, ect..) Seriously, that's the level of competence at a dealership that you have to deal with.
