John,
Alignment was not an issue with the third bearing. I estimate the shaft if 3-5 thou undersize. I think this was done intentionally by Losmandy for various reasons. Chrome plating might be an option, but I'm not going to spend anymore time on this as the slop as Alen137 has pointed out had no perceivable impact on backlash, but it would appear in the FFT analysis as a large low frequency component, which I think it does, but guides out.
Peter
