To address the stability issues of sliding bearings under high-speed operating conditions, an experimental study on shaft center trajectory characteristics with liquid metal as the lubricant is presented in this paper. Firstly, a liquid metal bearing test rig was constructed. The dynamic responses of the shaft center trajectory across a rotational speed range of 1000–8000 rpm were collected and analyzed. It is found that a small closed loop is exhibited by the shaft centerline trajectory in the low-speed range (1000–3000 rpm). This phenomenon is caused by the high density and high hydrodynamic pressure effect of the liquid metal. Stable system operation is maintained under this condition. The range of the shaft centerline trajectory is significantly expanded as the speed increases above 4000 rpm. Non-linear disturbance characteristics are also exhibited due to the enhanced fluid inertial forces. Subsequently, a steady-state numerical model of the liquid metal-lubricated bearing is established via computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The pressure distribution of the flow field is simulated. It is indicated by the simulation results that a highly concentrated pressure distribution is created in the middle section of the bearing. This profile is generated by the herringbone grooves through a centripetal pumping effect. Experimental evidence is provided by the findings of this study for the structural optimization and vibration control of liquid metal bearings. Furthermore, the coupling mechanism between the centripetal pumping effect of a discontinuous herringbone groove at high speeds and the divergence of the axial trajectory is revealed.