Anti skating SME V

These SME arms have the usual set-up for spring-loaded anti-skate: turn a dial until it is set to a number corresponding to the VTF in grams. My issue is that doing this appears to be inaccurate—the stylus touches down and skates inwards into the middle of the first track. If I increase the anti-skate setting to a higher value it does not do this. But if I set it too high the stylus starts to mistrack about the middle of the record, by skipping back and refusing to go onwards. Turn the anti-skate down a little and it continues to play.* There is a happy medium where there is enough anti-skate at the start of a side, but not so much that it refuses to play right through the side. This seems to be a little higher than the expected value on the anti-skate dial. If I use a grooveless disk, I tend to get it set too high and I end up with mid-side mistracking. If I follow Peter Ledermann's method, I am setting the anti-skate just a little low for the run-out area in the hope it will be just right in the middle of the disk. Having just one ear and no ability to hear stereo I cannot  look for distortion in one channel or the other. So, yes, I am hoping to use the Wally Skater to get it set correctly. No doubt for each arm/cartridge combination there will be a correct spot in the suggested 9-11% of VTF it aims for, and I'll have to make a note for each one to save future experimentation. If it saves me one premature re-tipping it will have paid for itself. At the end of the day, I'll be happy to know I can set it simply so I find that happy medium where there are no issues at stylus touchdown or at mid-side.

*I have made sure the platter, tonearm panel and headshell are all horizontal.

@dogberry what you're describing suggests to me that the problem is more likely in the arm's bearings or wiring than in the antiskate mechanism.

On all four arms?

dogberry

On all four arms?

It's obvious something is wrong, isn't it?

I have only one SME V arm, and it doesn't behave as you describe.

A curious result with the Wally Skater: it replicated the grooveless record's results, but reduced them by the same percentage (~30%). So the three arms that the grooveless record required a setting at "3" are now set a smidgen over "2." The fourth that required "2.5" is now set at "1.65." (I use quotation marks as these are marks that correspond to VTF in grams, but are not actually grams. I set them so the Wally Skater thought I was applying 10% of VTF. Trying it out now and everything plays as expected.

On performing the tests of static friction and internal tonearm forces I could see no issues. Evidently the joke is on me as the anti-skate settings are almost exactly where the SME manual says they should be: very close to the value of the VTF.

If there is a lesson here, it might be that a cheap and easy-to-use grooveless record could be used, if followed by reducing the anti-skate by 30%. And this is awfully close to the Ledermann method where a "slow inward movement" for certain values of slow equates to 30% less than than the grooveless record's result.