Eq5 strip and grease

[bottletopburly]

Anyone tell me ow big a job to strip down a eq5 clean the gearing of grease and regrease with lithium grease ,cheers

[malc-c]

Probably around the same as stripping any mount, be it an EQ5 or HEQ5.  

I would give yourself around three to four hours for the first time you strip a mount.  Do it when no one else is around and take the phone off the hook so you don't get distracted.  It's not a hard job to strip a mount, but you want to keep focused and take your time.  Use an old cloth like a towel or blanket, and get lots of bowls  or pots for screws.  As you remove the screws place then in the pots, and place the pots next to the item removed, then sequentially place the next parts removed below the first set, and so on so that each step is below the previous one.  Then when you come to re-assemble your just work your way back up the steps in reverse order that you removed them.

The hardest part in re-assembly is getting the worm and main gear alignment and meshing right.  Some suggest using fag paper between them to get the clearance right.

Take your time, and be prepared for twice as much time to get the mount set up again at the end.  The EQ5 has one advantage in that the drive gear is external compared to the HEQ5 / EQ6 so meshing the drive gears is a lot easier.

Good luck, and take lots of pictures.  There are some excellent guides on re-greasing HEQ5 / EQ6 mounts, but not so many on the EQ5

[Garethr]

It's not too difficult

Make sure you keep the clear plastic washers in the right order ready to put back after strip down

There is a web page that shows how it's done .

Gareth.

[Ajohn]

It might be a good idea to take photo's as you do it just in case you forget what goes where. They aren't that complicated but ...........................

One of the things that is important one worms and wheels is that the worm is precisely tangential to the wheel. Personally I think "feel"  is the best way to do that, no rock when there is zero clearance. It's also best to check that there is no binding over a full revolution of the wheel.

Gears are designed to run with a certain amount of clearance so some back lash is essential really. The question is how much. If correct they will revolve smoothly without any " jumps " or binding and the next teeth will start engaging as the current one starts to disengage..

John

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[triton1]

Astronomy boys website gives a detailed step by step guide on stripping and rebuilding a cg5 mount which is the same as the eq5 I found it very helpful.

[Ajohn]

Maybe I should expand on tangential having read the web site mentioned. The centre grub screw sets the worm to wheel spacing but the 2 screws either side of it set the angle it's at / the worms tangential angle to the wheel. If they are tightened by different amounts the worm angle will change so the axis will need to be rotated slightly to get the 2 to mesh again. The change of worm angle will also reduce the clearance.

I'm not suggesting that they should be finely tweaked this way, which might be possible to a very limited degree. Just pointing out what happens and that the axis needs to be rocked by hand as they are meshed - that will cause the worm to be at the correct tangential angle when there is no clearance. The worm will fit firmly on the wheel as more than one tooth should be in contact.  It's possible to feel when they are meshed this way. The 2 other "horizontal" bolts limit the range of angles  that the worm can be at.

All just things to think about and bear in mind while adjusting them. It might help. I'm about to do an EQ3 Pro when the grease comes. The adjustment on the dec axis seems to be ok but the ra rocks by a degree plus.  Not totally sure about the grease I've ordered but it is synthetic and intended for something like maintenance free general purpose applications. From the temperature range I'd guess that it wont be too thick. Ebay number 281074391607.

John

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