Mine was fairly tight when I got it, but I could rotate the lower rod about 1/10 of a turn or less. I ended up putting a small piece of electrical tape on the camlock pad and that worked for a while and then it loosened up again. So I then put a small piece of black friction tape on top of the electrical tape and that has held fine so far. You can definitely tell if it's shimmed enough if when tightening the camlock it starts to tighten up before turning it very much. And, as someone mentioned above, my armcuff was slightly loose also making it feel like the lower rod was loose. I took it apart and put a couple of wraps of electrical tape where it contacts the shaft and that fixed the looseness.