instead of a novel, I think I'll do this one in bullet points
-Honda Odyssey minivans use nylon roller bushings as a guide for their sliding doors
-All other minivan manufactures I could find at the junkyard use metal bearings in this location
-Autozone has $45 replacement brackets that are also failure prone (lasted 3 weeks) and, as it turns out, have absolutely no warranty whatsoever
-dealerships will happily replace the broken part with a new one for like $500
-after some research I found a steel bearing that is very close to the nylon roller's size
-installed them today and the door works better than it did with the brand new autozone part
all is well