Originally Posted by
maddmaxx
When you say its the pully with a bit of play, do you mean the side to side float that's supposed to be in the upper pully or some other form of play?
The intentional side-to-side play is exactly what I mean. Shimano calls this "Centeron" and it corrects for minor derailleur misalignment and minor spacing differences in the cassette. Index shifting is difficult to impossible to make accurate and quiet without it.