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Hi, I have damaged the ra gear on my EQ6Pro whist installing a belt mod and I would like to replace it. An older message recommends aeroquest-machining.com but the site is dowm. Anyone have any other suggestions, a Skywatcher one is a special order item and will take ages. Thanks in advance Ian

Recently I opened my AZ-EQ5 mount for adjusting and greasing. I did not find any complete tutorial for this nor worm or bearings dimensions. I plan to replace some of those if I have the chance. Meanwhile, I will add some pics of the disassembly process. Open the plastic top case. Please excuse the USB hub attached, I did not remove that. Pull out the cable connectors. Put the top case with the controller board aside. The bolt inside the green circle can help you remembering or adjusting the belt tension. Loosen down the RA motor screws. Remove the belt. Unscrew the bolts. Remove the motor. The bolts inside the green circles can help you remember and adjust the worm distance to the RA main gear. Remove the bolts holding the worm case. Parts: RA main gear, worm case. Remove the screws holding the encoder board. You get access to the nut holding the worm in place. Remove this too. Remove the bolts inside the driving gear attached to the worm. Sorry, not the best pic. You can now proceed to push out the worm and the bearings. No pics for this, sorry. The bearings are 688Z, 16mm outer diameter, 8mm inner diameter, 5mm width. Worm dimensions measured with the caliper: 69mm, 36mm. Hope someone finds this useful. I'd be interested if the worm is identical to the ones used in the HEQ5. Clear skies! Alex

Hello All, I found a "fix" for having a damaged worm drive that I thought I would share. Earlier this year I managed to snag the RA slow motion cable on my jacket and snap the end off the brass worm drive. After reading some helpful posts on Stargazers Lounge i removed both worm drive assemblies and switched the RA with the DEC as a short term fix. It is a bit of a pain in practice as its awkward to reach the DEC knob when viewing. Last week I decided to take the plunge and buy a GOTO kit. Just before ordering I realised that the side of the worm drive shaft that is needed for the motor gear is the broken side. After scouring the net, and talking with a few shops, the end result is that it will cost around £30-35 for a new worm drive shaft and approx 4 month wait for it to arrive from China!! It suddenly struck me yesterday that the worm drive turns the scope in both directions and there was a good chance it must be symmetrical. Good news, it is!. It took around 5 minutes to take apart and re-assemble with the worm drive shaft the opposite way around. Very straight forward. I now have some brass shaft on the correct side to mount the motor gears. I hadn't seen this fix suggested anywhere before, it was only after staring at lots of pictures it become an obvious thing to try. I hope this helps someone else out there. Callum