Waverly tuners...just because I had them laying around...I did the side port. With the old, aged and fragile mahogany on both the Favilla and the Martin, I made the port larger than usual so I could get a proper cleat at the east and west sides of the hole. The Martin really benefitted from the port but the Favilla could probably get by without one. It is a loud ukulele. If all you do is play by yourself, the side port is nice but not necessary, but, if you gig or play with a large group of ukuleles, it really helps the baritones. They can easily get drowned out by tenors and concerts.
Old friction pegs come out easily but the bushings tend to need to be driven out of the peg head. I then drill out the hole to 1/4. Then I use a tool from Stewmac to drill out the peghead from the top for the new tuner bushings. If Gotoh UPT geared pegs are used, I have another tool from Stewmac for that size as well.