Dec axis movement on HEQ5

[beamer3.6m]

I appear to have some DEC axis movement? on my HEQ5.

I assume it is the DEC axis - the one which has the saddle the dovetail sits into and counterweight shaft coming out the bottom???

Anyway, there is quite a bit of play in this axis. I can rock the scope perhaps 1mm back and forth. I assume this is not meant to be there and I have recently changed the length of the counterweight shaft which needs the top part of this axis taken off so that you can get access to it.

I have read astrobaby's guide to stripping down the HEQ5 but this all seems complicated to me as it goes into more detail than I think I need.

How do I tighten this axis and stop this wobble.

Also, will this improve my guiding as I am struggling to calibrate in DEC.

Any help much appreciated.

[wxsatuser]

If you can rock dec with the clutch tight thats backlash in the worm, adjust accordingly.

Check also you have no play in the dec shaft.

Grab hold of the counterweight shaft and push and pull it, if you can feel any endfloat or side play you may need to tighten up the dec roller bearing.

Do this by slackening the three grub screws in the counterweight collar and tighten the collar until there is no play but dec rotates free.

http://www.astro-baby.com/heq5-rebuild/heq5-we1.htm

[Astro_Baby]

Dont obsess about play in the DEC overmuch on an HEQ5.  They all suffer from a small amount of play, even mine does a bit and its near impossible to tune it out completely. 

If you just want to adjust the worm engagement the back end of my guide covers worm tuning but be warned, it can take a fair bit of time.  If you ever thought collimation was a pain thats just peanuts to tuning the worms up on the HEQ5, you need to do it, run the mount and do it again.  Its an iterative process and you can never really eliminate it entirely.

From experience the HEQ5 is a swine to get the DEC right while the EQ6 is a hellcat with its RA tuning.

I would incline to leave it be unless its actually causing a problem.

[BlabyStarGazer]

On 25/07/2015 at 14:53, Astro_Baby said:

Dont obsess about play in the DEC overmuch on an HEQ5.  They all suffer from a small amount of play, even mine does a bit and its near impossible to tune it out completely. 

I would incline to leave it be unless its actually causing a problem.

That sounds like the sort of advice I COULD follow without getting in a mess!   I have the same issue - slight play in a HEQ5 DEC axis - and since it is currently not causing me to lose very much sleep, the advice is most welcome.  Thank you!

[Starlight 1]

I do have play in the top and Dec still very good line in PHD .

[MBJ]

i seem to be suffering with this on a 2 week old heq5 to the point of when my ed120 is on the mount and i go to use the focuser on something the image jerks from side to side because of the play in the dec axis when im looking through the eyepiece,.....not good for something that costs so much!!