There's sloppy...and then there was *sloppy*. I had done a poor job of maintenance up to the point where I replaced the pulleys so the top pulley bushing was fairly well worn (creating more than lateral play). And I didn't understand the Shimano design (lateral play) until I put in the new pulley. Of course, poor maintenance eventually caused the whole RD to become unusable anyway.

Hadn't thought of replacing the larger pulleys in my current RD with smaller ones to see what affect that might have. Interesting. Maybe even trying a mix...tho, that might be pushing the experimenting a bit too far (have to check if I still have the old RD....pulleys were still in fairly good shape when I replaced it). Appreciate the suggestion.

Cage design different...how so?