Armature Bearing Grease?

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OK, I have a '54 short hood and was wondering about whether or not I should pack grease in the threaded hole on the exciter cover bracket that covers one side of the armature bearing. There was a small pipe plug that I took off to look inside and it appeared dry inside. If so, it seems like a lot of grease would be needed in there to even get close to  coming into contact with the bearing. But I guess they put the threaded hole there for a reason. Also, how do you determine if you have the oversized exciter generator? Looking at the Lincoln manual they show two different generators, standard and oversized exciter. Here is some pics of the area I'm talking about. Thanks kamotz.
Reply:I believe any high quality bearing grease will work. Not sure how much to put in.Your commutator needs some work. It needs to be dressed with a seating stone.I am going to guess the brushes are  worn and may have been sticking in the holder.You can see carbon deposits and arcing.
Reply:I remove that pipe plug, and replace with a grease zerk fitting. I use general purpose grease from Napa. I just give it several pumps at every oil change.Don’t pay any attention to meI’m just a hobbyist!CarlDynasty 300V350-Pro w/pulseSG Spool gun1937 IdealArc-300PowerArc 200ST3 SA-200sVantage 400
Reply:Yea that's what I was thinking I would end up doing. (zerk fitting) I just didn't want to proceed and find out later it was a "no no". And also with the dressing the comm. I believe the brushes are still pretty good.I pulled the holder springs out of the way and they are loose in the holders.  It does weld, but a touch of the stone wouldn't hurt either. Thanks fellas. cheers kamotz
Reply:Those originally oil filled, although I doubt it would hold oil now. The grease cert sounds like a real good idea to me.
Reply:Originally Posted by robphillips00Those originally oil filled
Reply:I went with a grease fitting. While I was at it I cleaned up the commutator too.  Now all I have to do is figure out why my vacuum idler won't respond to me striking an arch.It will only stay idled up when I bridge the two output posts to pull a load, and manually shove the linkage. Sounds like a lack of vacuum or something I'm not sure yet.
Reply:Depends on what idler you have, older bellows style covered in Lincoln IM-117B or R57 idlers covered in IM-179G and IM-179G1or upgraded to electronic idler in IM-277A manuals.  There are trouble shooting chart pages towards back of each manual.http://www.lincolnelectric.com/Asset...OLN3/IM179.pdfhttp://www.lincolnelectric.com/Asset...N3/IM179G1.pdfhttp://www.lincolnelectric.com/Asset...OLN3/IM277.pdf
Reply:First thing I would check is the RPM at idle. If the RPMs are too low generally the vacuum idlers won't kick up the RPMs.Don’t pay any attention to meI’m just a hobbyist!CarlDynasty 300V350-Pro w/pulseSG Spool gun1937 IdealArc-300PowerArc 200ST3 SA-200sVantage 400