RE: Possible servo problem ?
Isolate the servo with no load, first of all.
Seperate the ball joint from the linkage, and see if it still has the problem.
If you are feeling brave, and you have new parts on order anyways, you can try to dissasemble the servo and free the gears, I've done it several times on my Parkzone planes when they start acting weird.
Good luck with the new ones, though!
Bryan