Belt Drive Kit

[mog3768]

As my mount is six years old in January and it has spent most of that time in a outside obsy and there is some slack in dec  I thought it time for a strip down and a re grease.  So is it also the time to fit a Rowen belt drive kit or indeed is this mod a good thing.

So I would appreciate any feed back from anyone who has fitted one to an NEQ6 mount. Mainly is it worth it and is it a relatively easy task to carry out.

[red dwalf]

on a heq 5 it is a very easy thing to do, on a neq 6 it`s a lot harder, plus if you do the full strip down there is a little skill in setting up the play correctly, this put me off a bit so i sent my neq6 off to Graham at astrotec Limited, http://www.astrotecuk.co.uk/page11.html

he did a full strip down and got rid of that http://www.astrotecuk.co.uk/page11.html monkey grease, checked all parts to make sure they are good enough to re fit, regreased with quality grease, did a belt mod on the mount which sounds a lot better now, now grating noise when first starts slewing or stopping, he did a great job and my mount has many more years ahead of it now, cost was about £260 which included the return of the mount, luckily i still had the box it came in, i`ve also do the Gunner altitude mod and the power mod to my mount, when all said and done if i had bought a newer az gt 6 it would still have the horrible grease and some still need the play in the gears adjusting.

[red dwalf]

i believe that he also comes out to do servicing now, although i would guess if your the other side of the country he might not L.O.L.

[Jokehoba]

I did this earlier this year on my NEQ6. It was a lot easier than I had antcipated. A thorough reading of AstroBaby's full strip-down and cleaning helped immensely. The instructions Rowan supply are excellent as well. The NEQ6 is now much quieter and runs/guides more smoothly.

I'd say go for it. It really isn't difficult. 

[mog3768]

Thanks Guys I have read Astobabes strip down and Rowens on his web page,I think I was more concerened

 if the belt addition was of of benefit for guiding and it sounds like it is.

[wookie1965]

I would like to do this on my EQ5 goto. 

[r3i]

Would certainly recommend it IMHO.  My NEQ6 runs lovely and smoothly and the PE has been significantly reduced.

Just take your time and use both the Rowan instructions and Astro Baby's site as guides.

It took me two or three goes to get the tension right on the belt but once I got it nailed it has worked very well.

[simmo39]

Did my HEQ 5 and it was a big improvement and fairly easy to do.

[sloz1664]

I upgraded my EQ6 with the Rowan Belt Kit and at the same time I upgraded all the bearings with high quality SKF bearings and "supertuned" the mount as per AstroBaby's excellent tutorials. Before the upgrade I had a little RA backlash & substantial Dec backlash. After the upgrade I eventually "tuned out" ALL backlash. The mount was smooth and free on both axis and because of the belt mod very quite as well. Guiding and goto's were substantially improved. From my perspective, the upgrade gave me the insight in how the mount works and the experience in maintaining it to it's best. Eventually I replaced it with my current mount the Avalon Linear. I've wanted one for years. It took me that long to save up for it. 

Steve

[mog3768]

These positive reply are making me more and more keen to order the belt kit.

[Astroframer]

I have been thinking about the belt mod for a while now on my Neq6, as Star Forming has said, a lot of positive reviews.

I see Astrotecuk are now coming to you to do the belt mod, instead of sending your mount away, sounds like a brilliant idea.

[gingergeek]

Another vote here for Graham at Astrotec.

My mount sounded sounded like a bag of bolts grinding when it slewed which is not something you want at 3am in the morning in a surban setting. Once Graham had done his magic it behaved like a different mount, was so much quieter and just whirred gently plus the PE seemed to improve. He also machined me a new weight bar collar because the SW one was loose and allowed too much movement. So glad I had the work done.