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Make sure you check the bearings in the lateral guide rollers. They love to "blow their guts" all over the place, leaving the rollers to wobble as they run. I have even had one freeze completly. Judging by your description of the "Q-Tip Trick" it sounds a lot like the "screwdriver trick" that people in one theatre were doing. Replacing the bearings was the solution.

While you are at it, be sure to order yourself a whole "tube" of those bearings. You're probably going to find that, one by one, the bearings in the rest of your projectors are going to start taking a shit on you as well.
Christie told us that we have to OIL those bearings regularly but, for the life of me, I can't imagine how the hell we are going to get people to start doing that when it's all we can do go get them to clean the projectors at the end of each night. (Let alone at the end of each SHOW!)

Basically just inspect them. If there are problems they might be appearent just by looking at them. Wiggle them (gently) and turn them back and forth.
Sometimes they feel like they have "gravel" inside them or they get a hitch in them that causes them to "bump" as they spin. It's not hard to tell good bearings from bad... good ones spin smoothly... bad ones don't.
If you have any doubts you can compare with a projector that's running right. Go to the "suspect" projector and inspect a bearing and give it a spin. Then go to the other one and do the same. Note any differecnes. It's not hard to tell the difference.

You can replace the bearings on the guide rollers easily with regular tools if you are careful. The bearings on the sound drum shouldn't be touched unless you can do a complete A-Chain alignment afterward. OK, truth is you should probably A-Chain the machine any time you work anywhere near the sound head but IF you work carefully you can replace the rollers without it.

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If you are careful to note the way the rollers are installed before you take them out you should be able to put them back the way you found them with little trouble. You could get an alignment guage from Christie and that'll make it easy to put them back right. If you can't get one of those you can use a caliper and lock it in to the measurement between the bulkhead and the inner edge of the roller flange before you take it out.

I discovered another way to measure the roller placement completely by accident one day. I had a Christie alignment guage in my shirt pocket. I reached in to get it but I had to take my pack of cigartettes out to get it. I just happened to lay the guage down on top of the pack and notice that they are the same width. So, I HAD to try it. Y'Know what? It works! I'm sure the alignment guage is more accurate but this trick will do you in a pinch.

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