are experienced this approach to anti backlash has only one set of gears carrying the load while the other set of gears merely provides anti backlash for example in many radio telescope systems two separate motor and drive systems operate on a main bull gear during high torque high loading operation the two drive systems operate in parallel so that all gears function at full capacity during precision operation the drives oppose each other to remove backlash the present invention provides anti backlash while using a single drive pinion and motor thereby making more efficient use of various gear and system components referring now to fig1 the anti backlash reduction gearing pursuant to some embodiments of the present invention includes one large bull gear 100 two substantially identical idler gears 101 a 101 b and a single drive pinion 102 the idler gears engage the outside edge of the bull gear and are spaced a distance apart denoted as 103 in fig2 the pinion gear is typically positioned between the idler gears with such clearances as are customarily employed that is precise tolerances are not required it is advantageous in some embodiments of the present invention that the gear sizes be chosen so that the center of the pinion can be positioned on the line connecting the centers of the idler gears as depicted in fig1 the two idler gears 101 a and 101 b are typically mounted on fixed pins while the pinion gear 102 is free to move radially in or out from the bull gear that is substantially along the direction indicated by 104 in fig2 during low torque operation the pinion is pulled or pushed radially thereby.