Hmm, now you're asking good questions..
Looks like you have either RacerX or the EXT knuckles ( same thing, different strength so far as I know ) there with bearings designed to take the 6mm cvds by the looks of it ( you'll need to double check the size of the bearings- should be 6x16x5mm or 8x16x5mm ), in which case you need the EXT cvds to match- both are out of stock and may never return however:
http://www.unlimitedengineering.com/...re/13501S.html
http://www.unlimitedengineering.com/...re/13502S.html
Luckily ebay always comes up trumps:
http://cgi.ebay.com/e-t-maxx-2-5-UE-...item415b1dd854
http://cgi.ebay.com/traxxas-t-maxx-u...item3a6630ed3c
a snip at $200 per set of 4- there are Titanium ones too for $500
I would grab some quick before they sell out really- bare in mind they dont use a little cross-pin to hold the hex in place, they use a keyed stubaxle to take their own proprietory 14mm hexes- if you want to run larger hexes, you have to find some 14mm > 17mm/23mm adapters, though that isn't so hard thankfully.
The pillow ball retainers
look to be the same size as the ones on the stock old 3906 emaxx knuckles, so finding stronger replacements should be a bit easier- there are alloy ones around so just add blue threadloc and fewer worries about stripping the hex drive:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Traxxas-4934-Alu...item35b21c86c6
http://cgi.ebay.com/Traxxas-E-Maxx-A...item23124a4384
The UE version is ofcourse out of stock and also may never return.
As for your stripped retainer, I would heat up a flat bladed screwdriver, push it in, let it cool/ set, then just unscrew the retainer, quicker and easier really :)