EQ6 Stripdown

[George]

I stripped down my EQ6 yesterday for a re-grease after the previous owner (Dave Gibbons) reported a very slight vibration only detectable at high magnification. Well I can confirm synta's grease is discusting, I can only compare it with black treacle/runny tarmacadam/thick camp coffee. Anyhow I started with the DEC shaft, stripdown went OK and I soon had a pile of bits.

Then I discovered this:

This 1 of the 2 shims that go between bearings on the DEC shaft, I think its Teflon tho its extremely brittle. So I'm wondering.....how much should I be concerned? I had no choice but to reassemble using the broken bit but liberally plastered in the new grease I used. I'm hoping the new grease will compensate for the missing bits

http://www.finishlineusa.com/products/fortified-grease.htm

This was 4.99 from Halfords

Rebuild went OK but I now have some play in the worm shaft, hopefully this can be adjusted out. If I get time today I'll do the RA shaft.

I'll let you know how I get on.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

I think that the broken bit is a preload shim for adjusting how tight the bearing gets pulled up. So long as it goes in and makes the correct size gap in the correct place, you shouldn't have any trouble.

HTH

Captain Chaos

[geppetto]

Interesting stuff 8)

Did any of the strip down cause you problems or did it all go to plan?

When I did a similar refurb to my EQ5, I found that one of the plastic shims

had lumps of metal flashing pressed into it.

Replaced it with a homebrew one made from milk carton plastic.

Wonder if you can get replacements of those

[daz]

George

Take a look at http://ozastro.dyndns.org/[url/]. There's a whole section on worm adjustments and stuff. I imagine the HEQ5 adjustments are similar to the 6 ....

HTH

[George]

I found a guy in the states who does a washer replacment kit

The set of 20 spacers will be a total of $13.00 shipped. There are 4 different thickness.

4 X 0.010 inch Delrin

4 X 0.015 inch Delrin

4 X 0.020 inch Delrin

8 X 0.004 inch Mylar ( these are really useful for fine tuning the adjustments)

The guys called Doug Dieter email is skygazer@kennaquhair.com

[geppetto]

I found a guy in the states who does a washer replacment kit

Great find... thanks

[daz]

George

How did your re-assembly go? Did you replace any bearings or any other bits?

I'm going to do mine, with assistance, but if I need/should replace bits then I need to get them organised. On the Yahoo group there are people who have replaced various bits .........

[George]

George

How did your re-assembly go? Did you replace any bearings or any other bits?

I'm going to do mine, with assistance, but if I need/should replace bits then I need to get them organised. On the Yahoo group there are people who have replaced various bits .........

Stripdown and rebuild went very well apart from 1 of the plastic shims being broken, for piece of mind I will be replacing as soon as they arrive in the post. I will be doing the full shim Monty as found in this article which covers the DEC shaft but also applies to RA:

http://www.beevo.com/dec_assemble.htm

Also sourced some replacement worm bearings as these seemed to bind a little (watch buy & sell cos I had to buy 5 pairs to get a good price and I'll be selling the surplus on ) I had a little slop in the DEC shaft after rebuild but then I found the little adjusters and that took care of that Everything feels really smooth now, well worth doing IMHO, set aside at least 3 hours per shaft and make sure you have some disposable rubber gloves cos this job is dirty & messy.

TBH I got a lot of enjoyment and learned alot about the mount, worth it for the entertainment value alone.

I'll be putting up a page devoted to EQ6 stuff on my website very soon with links to everything I found on the web regards EQ6's

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

I'll be putting up a page devoted to EQ6 stuff on my website very soon with links to everything I found on the web regards EQ6's

Cool! Can't wait.

Captain Chaos