I recently lubricated the bearings in my Tiger's steering column and am I glad I did. They were dry! I followed the recommendations in the Shop Notes manual and have some further information.
My bearing carriers were well and truly stuck in the column tube. I am sure that I could have wrecked them if I had tried to pry them out. I disassembled them by first taking the column apart as far as I could, leaving only the bare column and shaft. I then removed the circlips from both ends (MkI) and rapped the lower end of the column shaft on a hardwood block. This forced the top bearing carrier out of the column. I then reversed the column and rapped again to remove the lower carrier. The carrier is easily able to take this reverse pressure. The shaped washer seems to have no purpose other than to prevent damage when the bearing is removed in this fashion.
In rebuilding the lower bearing, I packed the carrier half full of grease. If dirt sticks to the grease, let it stick to the top layer, far away from the balls.
To further shield the lower bearing
I fitted a leather ring as shown below.
I punched a 1 1/16" hole in a 1/16" thick piece of leather, about 3" in diameter. Once the column was reassembled, I stretched the shield over the bottom spring and pushed it tight against the column with a screwdriver, then trimmed it to the same diameter as the column. This extra seal should keep dirt and water away very effectively.