Headset bearing

[gbb]

I've had appalling looking headset bearings before, rust stains emanating from them, all the grease washed out of them. Wd40 or similar to wash out as much old crud as you can, wipe wipe wipe, get as much out as you can, ram in some grease as Ajax Bay states. They will be fine, you don't need to overthink it, honestly.👍

 

[raleighnut]

But the whole point of the thickener in a grease is to keep the oil in place. 3-in-1 (or similar) will just drain away.

As above I’d clean out with a light spray oil like WD-40 or similar, let that dry (encourage with a hair drier if needed), then regrease.

The thing that makes grease go 'sticky' after years is that the Oil has eventually 'evaporated' leaving the residue to be ineffective. A small amount of Oil can rejuvenate grease, you only need a few drops so not 'washing it out'

Pius on a headset we aren't spinning it, it only moves a few degrees in either direction so my advice after more than 50 years of cycling and fixing my own bikes is to reassemble the fork and put 3 or four drips of oil in and work the handlebars from side to side until they feel 'right', it may need another couple of drops of oil through this process but there is a reason why 3 in 1 is also called 'Cycle Oil'.............This also works on proper unsealed wheel bearing though every now and then I take them apart and 'regrease them (5yrs or so) You can tell I'm old but I have wheels built 35yrs or so ago that are still smooth running with no play.
The snag/fault with 'sealed' bearings is that once moisture has cot in there (often from condensation) is that it cannot get out again so corrodes from the inside.