My advice is, if you don't know the full history of your axles, get the Duralast and have it on hand before you start the job. Return it if you don't need it.
Did this job today. Replaced both front lower ball joints at the same time, and was surprised how much tighter and more precise the front end feels now. The old ones didn't seem worn out, just had torn boots (see below regarding dealership) and 130k miles on them.
I was uncertain of the procedure for the outer, so I picked up the Duralast reman ahead of time in case I ran into problems I couldn't solve. Saved my bacon.
Once I got the axle out and the joint apart, and took the shaft over to the parts washer to get it nice and clean, I realized there was no snap ring where there clearly should have been one. I looked in the parts washer, and there was half of it. On the splines of the axle, you could see where the ring had been out of position when the joint was pressed on and, rather than sliding inside the CV hub, it was sheared into two pieces. The other piece was presumably covered in grease and is probably just somewhere inside the boot. I'm assuming this was done by the Subaru dealership that replaced the outer boot before I bought the car and damaged it in the process, causing me to have to do this job. I am not taking it back there to have them fix it. They screwed up everything they touched - this was just the farthest-in part I've seen.
Realizing this situation, and not having a snap ring on hand, I switched to the Duralast axle. The sheet metal guards for the hub bearing and tranny seal were not present on the reman, so I switched them over. Found a large bearing puller and tapped them off, then tapped them back on the reman axle very carefully with a copper hammer and a brass drift.
I had access to a lift. I got everything apart normally, and even pried the axle away from the tranny so the snap ring was out of its groove, but the larger portion wasn't past the oil seal. I then lowered the car so I could remove the other three arms of the lift and lifted it back up under just one corner. Unorthodox use of a lift, but not much different than floor jacking it. Turned the steering a little as the car angled and the low side moved toward the lift arm. I put a jack stand under the lift arm just in case.
Worked perfectly. Not a drop of tranny fluid came out. I made sure I had a super-clean glove finger and dabbed a bit of tranny fluid on the parts of the inboard CV that would be inside the tranny, especially the oil seal surface, before inserting it. Once the reman axle was in the tranny, I lowered the car to get the other arms back under it and lifted it to normal working height to finish the job.
Used a very large pry bar between two studs to hold the hub from turning while I torqued it with a super-high-quality torque wrench to spec.
Seems to drive perfect.