Protostar I NEED HELP

Use a table knife. Stick the blade in the small gap between the spacer and bearing and roll the bearing/spacer assembly forward while pushing down gently with the knife.

There is no ā€œMust beā€. They are on extremely tight. YYF says this is for performance. YYF has since been shown that is not the case.

Keep at it, be patient and be careful.

Can I just put the bearing and the spacers in some paint thinner, or do I have to take the spacers off
The spacers are pretty dirty too

Rolling method always works! And, spacers and shields would prohibit the flow of acetone and prevent flowing, making the acetone take a very long time to dry and the cleaning to not work well.

I feel like a gigantic noob in this conversation butā€¦
Can someone give me a good explanation of the whole ā€œroll the bearing thingā€

I could loan you a couple yoyos tomorrow. I have a some that are similar to the Protostar.

I do believe I have fixed it

It still has a somewhat of a loud sound and it will sometimes grab the string if I jerk it up high enough
But I think itā€™s fine now

Thank you all for helping me!
Iā€™m probably going to buy a few new yoyos at the contest anyways

What was your fix? Because it doesnā€™t sound fixed.

However if you jerk the yoyo up way high and it grabs, thatā€™s really not a bearing issue. Thatā€™s just managing to get too much string in the gap.

Buy some new bearings while youā€™re out too. The Buddha Ripple is a CenterTrack-type bearing.