When I first saw the title of this thread, I immediately thought it was another one of those "muffler bearing grease" posts by someone with too much time on their hands...

Rich, I first saw what you're talking about when I built a SS MK II some years back. Having used a solid wire pushrod in a plastic outer tube without any drama many times before, I thought those little white spacers were a bit odd, but I gave them the old college try. I was seriously underwhelmed. Perhaps I didn't hold my mouth right, but the pushrod had a LOT more resistance with those things than without.

My advice is to simply not use them. If you have enough of a bend/curve/kink in your outer tube to require lubricity, its not going to be smooth regardless of what you do. The bare solid wire runs quite well within a reasonably straight tube, all by itself.

OTOH, if you simply must "follow directions", then I'll echo the dry graphite suggestion. Anything else is going to be a horrible mess; period.