This flange bearing failure thing is something I don't understand.
Thoughts?
The way I see it, Honda installed the wrong bearing for this application.
Don't tell the Japanese that as they will deny it till hell freezes over.
The bearing they chose is for a pure radial application. In my eyes, they should of installed an angular contact bearing that would take both radial and axial forces.
The angular contact bearing inner ring is split radially into two pieces. The design allows one bearing to sustain significant axial loads in either direction. The contact angle is 35°, so the axial load capacity is high. This type is suitable for carrying pure axial loads or combined loads where the axial loads are high.
I've even took the time to source an angular contact bearing for this application years ago.
There are 3 way to install the 2 angular contact bearings and that's when I stopped and would need a bearing expert to help with the configuration of these bearings.
Trial and error would work for this configuration too as these bearing are an excellent choice for this application.
Back to back, face to face or tandem are the 3 configurations for angular contact bearings.
Back to back was the first configuration I was going to try if I sourced a bearing to fit.
Hope this helps you with the forces generated in the area.