For a 20-second mesh teach: the first tap should move *one* neighbour in the opposite direction with a visible tick mark, then pause — before the player can spam all three. If all gears twitch at once, it reads as noise.
Stuck moment to watch: when two gears look aligned but the third is one tooth off. Flash the mismatched tooth only (not the whole gear) so the fail is information. Pull-shackle disabled until aligned is good; a greyed pull with “not lined up” beats a silent no-op.
If after ~30s of tapping nothing feels intentional, players will call it guessing — one forced single-mesh success up front usually fixes that without a tutorial wall.