along the lines of "fixing" for pennies, can i ask if the Friction plate on these 501-503 things still has some slop where the plastic pins go into the cast?
because we used to dissasemble these things on arrival and tweak and alter them till they were "acceptable" , and one thing we found was a slight rotational slop from the plastic insertion into the metal.

do they still have that?

side note, we used to ADD fluid to the friction plate, because i never thought there was enough, after a few hundred hours of tracking it seems like some areas were plastic on plastic, so re-packing would keep that from occuring over time.

i notice that i should be buying the $1000 head, but today i think i gotta get the 1/3rd price one again, your post is interesting "fix" a choice of replacement fluids.

When I took it apart, I did not notice any slop where the plastic whent into the cast.
This is a new 503hdv, so I don't know if they changed this from the older models.;

thanks. i will remember your tip, because that type of head is probably the kind i will end up with.