Rob,
You said you cannot use one of those plastic plates/disks? There is another option you could try/use. As you mentioned, you could use reg grease or some type of spay lube or non dust attracting graphite. There is a company who markets are primarily semi drivers, but has gain a ton of users who are not semi drivers. Anyways it's called MotorKote. They have 2 products that will probly work for you. 1st is MotorKote Hyper Lubricant which is a friction reducer inside engines, BUT also HAS hundreds of other uses. 2nd is MotorKote 5th wheel grease. As name implies, it's for 5th wheels along w/ anything else that takes grease. FWIW, give them a call and explain what you want to achieve and for their recommendation. They are located in OH.
