Fitting needle roller bearings to LX200 Dec Arms

[Merlin66]

I'm in the process of removing the nylon bushes from the dec arms of a 10" and 12" LX200; replacing them with needle bearings. This dramatically reduces the friction in the dec axis and allows much better control of the out of balance, thereby enhancing the life and capability of the drives.

So far no major issues, there's a very good write-up on the process on the MAPUG site. The arms have just come back from machining with the bearings press fitted; just need some time to re-assemble and re-align the dec arms. Should make a significant improvement to the scopes!!!