The half-black and half acrylic platters are for earlier TNT and Aries tables. (I've got one) They use well-type bearings. So I don't think you're discussing inverted bearings. They should be oiled, not greased.
Not sure about the bearing on the HR-X.
But I don't think the bearing is the problem. I would look upstream at the SDS. How long should an amplifier take to reach stability? How long for a tone generator?
That's why I suggest a call to VPI.
