Jim I'd strip it just to be safe better spending 60mins and £1 worth of grease than 2 weeks waiting and £150 for new spindle or even £80 on bearings.
Like Jon says there's nothing to it other than plucking up the balls to do it.!!

Wouldn't worry to much about the annealing has while it could have I doubt it did because it didn't fire up and the amount of heat required to anneal would have set the wood on fire.!!