[The_bluester (Paul)]

Originally Posted by doppler

The worm carrier pushes the worm against the ring gear which is connected to the RA shaft and bearing, so if a bit tight might put a bit of pressure on one side of the shaft even when unlocked.
http://www.astro-baby.com/heq5-rebuild/heq5-ra1.htm

Looking at it that way I suppose it could, it still needs one of the bearing surfaces on the shaft to be out of true but any one of them has the potential to be less than perfect, including the bore of the ring gear itself. A good machinist could tell in minutes but the mount has to come apart for that sort of check.