Should I strip my EQ6

[spillage]

When I connected the mount and tried to slew the dec and ra it sounded like a jack hammer as the belt slipped. I knew the worm on both dec and ra were moving freely and by removing the black caps and rotating the worm using an adjustable spanner on the end proved that it was very tight.

I slackened them off one at a time checking the worm again and then adjusted it back to just below the point were it would become too tight again. Its a trade off between a bit of backlash and a worm thats too tight.

[LightBucket]

24 minutes ago, spillage said:

When I connected the mount and tried to slew the dec and ra it sounded like a jack hammer as the belt slipped. I knew the worm on both dec and ra were moving freely and by removing the black caps and rotating the worm using an adjustable spanner on the end proved that it was very tight.

I slackened them off one at a time checking the worm again and then adjusted it back to just below the point were it would become too tight again. Its a trade off between a bit of backlash and a worm thats too tight.

Yes got it...

i have been reading up on this, and realised there was one instruction missing from the Astro Baby strip down guide, when you re-assemble the worm gears, the black cap needs to be fitted on the side of the gear or belt, before tightening the locking ring on the other side, this creates the small gap needed around the gear so it does not rub on the casing,  but it does not tell you in the guide to fit that black cap first, so if you don’t when tightening the locking ring on the one side, it will then bind on the other...

so basicaly you tighten the worm against the black cap on that side.

just a heads up in case anyone else try’s the mod...

[spillage]

I marked the cap on the adjustment side so I do not remove the other one by mistake if I need to manually turn the worm. If you need to take out any backlash then this is easily done by slackening off the four allen bolts on the worm housing and adjusting the top and bottom grub screws.

You should (I didnt) slacken off the top one (other side to the worm) and tighten up the bottom one. This will pull the worm away from the worm gear. Then do the opposite to start to move them closer together tightening the four bolts each time and checking for play.

Sorry not sure if you knew this so forgive me teaching anyone to suck eggs....