I regreased my RA axis according to guides at
http://www.andysshotglass.com/SVPmods.html and
http://www.astronomyboy.com/cg5/ . The binding in my mount was occuring between the ring gear and RA shaft. The ring gear wouldn't budge until I heated the RA assembly to around 50 or 60 degrees in the oven, after which it easily slipped off.
After cleaning, regreasing with super lube synthetic grease and reassembly, the mount is much easier to turn in RA with the lock disengaged.
I did encounter one unexpected problem however. I had been unable to remove the sealed bearing from the shaft (though I didn't use much force)and the ring gear did not want to fit back over the bearing during reassembly; even though I pre-heated the ring gear, unless it was perfectly square it got stuck on the bearing. I ended up tapping it back on with a hammer and block of wood, but it took a while to get it right. Have others encountered this problem? I suspect with the proper tool one could pull the bearing off the shaft and replace it with a new one. I imagine tolerances vary between individual mounts.
