Just starting to assemble this lathe (bought 2 yrs ago !), made the short 5/32''/4mm allen key to separate the bullwheel assembly and wondered how "free" the pulley cluster on the shaft should be when pulling everything round by hand ?, I gave the pulley oil nipple several squirts of H32 spindle oil with my Reilang can then even removed the nipple and wrapped some cloth around the spout injecting direct into the hole. It's only 10 deg C in the garage today so the oil will be relatively thicker than in summer, but I thought in the past what if a "greaser" had been at work – it is the later roller bearing headstock with grease nipples.

Will I have to test it under power and feel how warm the pulleys are getting or something ?

George, no it's definitely oil there needed when the pulley cluster is rotating relative to the bullwheel as in backgear. I have the "lathes.co.uk" facsimile of the ML10 manual.The oil nipple is quite different to the bulbous ends on the grease nipples with a shoulder allowing the zerk ? connector of a grease gun to snap on. It was an "Instructables" post detailing a ML10 headstock strip down and bearing change that mentioned the grease in the pulley oilway , because the taper rollers were being changed anyway the pulleys were removed from the spindle and the grease physically poked out, I just wondered wondered if you could use solvent like petrol/toluene/trichlorethane to flush out any possible grease