'80-'81 GS850 fork tube quandry

[spankster]

Hey fellow GSers...spankster here. I've reached an impasse with my GS850 restoration project. Here's my question: At the bottom of the inner fork tubes is an inner barrel/cylinder, about 1 1/4" long, that is contained at the bottom of the inner tube. On one tube, I can spin the inner barrel freely with my finger...it seems to be floating and surrounded by lubricant...and on my other tube, the barrel is essentially frozen. I made a little setup so that I could utilize a drill to try and spin the barrel to loosen it up. This seemed to get the free-floating barrel to work even better, but isn't really working on the seized up side. At one point I could rotate it about 210 degees or so, but it would always bind up at a given spot. I have another set of tubes that I rejected because of pitting, so I experimented with these, and in one case, I actually seemed to make the problem worse by spinning the inner barrel, and it actually heated up the tube.
Anyway, back to my question. Does that inner barrel spin freely by design, and is it a deal breaker if it doesn't spin ? There is a ring just above the barrel that is contained by the barrel, and acts as part of the dampening mechanism. The only thing I can think of is that maybe the barrel spins to reduced wear on that ring?
Anyway, would sure appreciate any insight you guys might be able to share. I'm going to try to link to a photobucket pic of what I'm describing, but bear with me if I screw it up the first time.
Thanks much!