Hi Kerplunk
I've had this issue on my Paganini for quite some time but ignored it until I read Spibbo's post re: the same issue. Spibbs figures his mech hangar is bent / misaligned and I agree.
I'll mention to you what I told him, " If the rear stays are reset from 126 > 130 then the hangar will kick
out. A 4mm reset of the stays also alters the hangar line by a factor 4mm. If a reset from 130 > 126 then the hangar will kick
in. Do you see what I mean ?
I also read somewhere in here recently that someone was having issues with the smallest sprocket constantly trying to jump up 1 because of the way the new style sprocket teeth are designed, as in self changing. Add this info to your re-spacing and you'll be very near to whatever it is thats actually causing it.
In Spibbs case, he used his LBS for the job, but thats no guarantee the lad who did it knew his stuff. I suspect that the real old guys in here will know what the problem is, especially the old frame builders. Sadly I don't know them yet .... but there's always time
I always knew of this kind of issue to be known as " accumulated error". 4mm on the stays = 1.3mm on the hangar = 0.8mm offset in the chain alignment at its worst ie: large ring / smallest cog. These figures are not accurate / real, just an example of how small details can make for a crap running mech in certain gears.
As a final thought, " I am finding that old frames haven't got the clearance on the rear stay for the 130 set wheels even when re-spaced because the angles are wrong / not designed to accomodate 10speed systems. They where designed for 6-7 speed. Its not just the spacing, but the shape of the rears. I have had 2 sets of 10spd 130 wheels touch the actual stay on the last cog, yet 9 speed miss ? BOTH 130 set wheels, yet more clearance because 1 set has 1 cog less. The wheels fitted fine, but the chainline couldn't clear the extra difference between 9 & 10.
Hope this helps some. Later Kerplunk, Laz.