Do you grease your transmission bearings on a rebuild

[Duke]

I am just about done my first rebuild of a 39 transmission. I know the front and rear bearings are lubricated by gear oil splash. Do you grease them so they are not dry on the first start up? I put gear oil on them that is slowly running off. I still have lots of things to complete before I can drive the car.
Thanks

[Flathead Fever]

I used to rebuild a lot of transmissions at work. We used grease to hold the individual needle bearings in place and we put a little 90W in the input and output shaft bearings to pre-lube them. Those don't matter as much as they will be lubricated almost instantly when the gears start splashing gear oil around, but it never hurts to pre-lube any bearing and seal. Especially if you are going to let the rebuilt assembled part sit for a while. Some of these total home restorations take years, maybe decades. You want to cover "all" the internal surfaces, so they don't rust. Take a paint brush and brush the surfaces with lite coating of gear oil to keep any moisture off of the gears. They will still look like new 30-years from now when you finish your restoration. They will look better than you will.

[Hans hendrik]

I was advised by technical experts to use "Molykote BR2 plus" before installing components/ rotating parts to an engine, just to cope with the first revolutions before the oil pressure is sufficient to reach all parts and avoid running dry. This black "grease" will absorbed by the oil shortly therafter

[svm99]

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New ball bearings should be preluded from the manufacturer. I use SKF and they are lubed. I use assembly lube on all other rotating components especially the 3 roller bearings.
Paul J