Jonk

The fibre disc sits between the top of the shaft that holds the saddle and the brass gear, then the other side of the brass gear is the bearing ring, and metal washer / disc before the casting. If that's not the right order I can't see it being another order?

Nope, the silver locking collar only screws on so far and it doesn't make any difference to the clutch if it's on or off. Confused... The problem with taking things apart for the first time is you can't always see how it's put together until you remove it!

I'll give that a try, but I think it was already at max.

Yep, on the RA axis.. That one works a treat, nice and tight and no backlash felt. It's the Dec axis that isn't right.

The Dec clutch basically pulls the whole shaft onto the brass ring when tightened and when loosened, the whole shaft is free to turn. It's as though I've left a spacer out or something and the grip just isn't enough for the brass to turn the shaft, but I can't turn it by hand.

Whilst I disassembled the mount and put it back together fine, there's one thing I don't get. The Dec clutch locks the Dec axis fine as expected, but the axis won't turn on the motor. The brass collar turns against the worm fine as I can test this with the shaft and collar out. It appears as though there's not enough grip between the brass, the disc and the collar. Anyone else noticed this?

Whilst I have mine in bits, does anyone need to know anything?!

Good idea - mine was running on a 12v 100Ah battery the other night when I tried it, and I did notice the power LED flash which would indicate low volts. The battery was charged (12.3V offload) and is relatively new so shouldn't be a power issue. I will test this however with a current clamp and see what's going on whilst slewing, before I strip it down tomorrow. Has anyone found the correct plug to make a DC PSU cable, rather then use the supplied fag lighter plug?

Yes, I'll do all that when I strip it - maybe tomorrow! Hopefully it'll be fine after that.

I've only used it once with a 150P on it, but it's not running correctly as it makes an awful noise when slewing then stops slewing, only to start slewing again without issue. It either needs stripping and cleaned / greased properly, or the power supply wasn't high enough. Balance was good and everything as far as I know was connected properly.

I'll be happy to contribute as I've recently bought a year old AZ-EQ6. I've stripped and rebuilt / tuned my HEQ5 pro already so I won't be afraid to do this one.

A friend of mine, who over the years has made his own 8" goto reflecting scope, on a custom EQ fork mount, and contributed massively to the Hampshire Astronomy Group observatory in Clanfield, is making a custom portable pier for his Intes-Micro Alter D6 mount. He's recently become interested in astrophotography and needed something for the mount to go on, and likes making things himself. His custom scope cannot be easily balance adjusted for cameras / extras. It's not complete as needs finishing / painting / powder coating etc. and I don't know the total cost at the moment, but I'll post more photos once complete. I know a few of you will be interested, so please feel free to comment.

juan_fierros@yahoo.co.uk I can also confirm a great service. He modded my 1100D with a Baader filter and removed the anti-aliasing filter, sent on a Thursday, received back very early the following week. 48 hour turnaround is normally to be expected. I noticed that 2 screws were missing, so I asked him if he had 2 spare, and I received these + philips 00 + 8gbsd card within 2 days. Perfect.