[wingnut60]

Mike,
While under the trailer working on the door-side slide, I turned 180degrees looking down the slide tube--there is a similar roller on the rear slide bar on the kitchen slide, haven't looked at the front of the kitchen slide, but assume another roller is there.
I had my wife move the kitchen slide while I watched the rear roller--no odd movement, so it is prob still ok. Since the kitchen slide has been in/out about as often as the door slide, expect to have a problem with it also. I believe there is more weight/force acting on the door-side rollers since it has to ramp up to come in??

There is no 'release' of any type on the rack/pinion setup--either the gears mesh or they don't. The gear on the rollers showed some wear from skipping the teeth on the slide bar. If the racheting sound you hear has been present since new, it can't be from pinion teeth missing the rack teeth or you would have had incomplete in/out movement. There is no allowance for 'give' except for the shear bolt (common 1/4" threaded bolt)--if the rear bolt broke, there could be no movement at all; if the front broke, the rear would move, but not the front.
I have to say--I can hear the teeth 'meshing' now with the new rollers and never heard it before. Movement is much noisier than with the old rollers--I can't account for that.
Joe