Lubrication
Congrats on embarking on your first Kirby restoration. I can help you out with lubricating the vacuum's bearings.
Starting with the brush roll: I'm assuming your Kirby has the original-style brush roll, which will have grey-painted wood and uses brass sleeve bearings, sometimes referred to as "bushings." The tell-tale sign that your Kirby has this style of brush roll is that the end caps will turn together; they cannot spin independently.
It sounds as though you have already discovered the trick to disassembling this brush roll, which is to fully remove the screw on each end and pop the end caps off. To lubricate the sleeve bearing, use a light, non-detergent oil on the end of a Q-tip to clean contaminants from the bearing surface. Once it is clean, simply soak a few drops of the same oil into the bearing and you should be good to go! The only thing to look out for here is over-oiling, which could leave you with oil stains on your carpet.
Next up: Motor bearings. These are ball bearing units, with one on each end of the motor. If you choose to lubricate these rather than downright replace them, be sure to fully clean out any of the old, original grease before re-greasing. Not only is the old stuff likely contaminated with gritty dirt, which can accelerate bearing wear, but it may also be incompatible with the new grease you install. Depending on which greases mix, mixing incompatible greases can give you either sludge or a runny mix. Neither is good.
Once you have cleaned the ball bearings thoroughly--break cleaner works wonders--liberally pack new grease around the ball bearings. I find syringes to be perfect for this, but Q-tips, tooth picks, or even your finger can also get the job done. The grease I prefer is a substance called "Mobil 1 Polyrex EM," which is a high-temperature synthetic grease designed specifically for the ball bearings used in small, high-speed electric motors (EM), such as what you have in your Kirby. In fact, it is actually the grease that many bearing OEMs install in the bearings they manufacture. The stuff is fantastic and a huge tube is not that expensive. I have pumped life back into many vacuum motors with this grease. I have put a link for it below.
One final, very important note. Sleeve bearings strictly require oil and rolling element bearings (ball bearings) strictly require grease. Putting grease in a sleeve bearing will quickly ruin it and putting an oil into any ball bearing would be similarly disastrous.
Good luck! I think we are all excited to see the end results of your restoration.
http://https//www.amazon.com/Mobil-...TF8&qid=1529541880&sr=8-1&keywords=polyrex+em
