Esprit 80ED focuser issues

[Hamburger]

Hi everyone

I finished putting a setup together with the Skywatcher Esprit 80ED with a ZWO EAF.  I was having issues with autofocusing.  Running it through SGP Pro, the focuser movement was quite erratic.  I would occasionally draw the focuser out correctly, other times not, and could rarely draw it in. When I tried the focuser knobs, the focuser itself was inconsistent in its movement.  It gets quite tight between the 3 and 3.5 position and again between 1 and 0.  I took the EAF off and the same focuser issues persisted.  I took the focuser apart and had a look.  The four spacing screws were a bit uneven, so I tried evening them up.  The rack looks fine.  The pinion looked a bit rough and there were some fine shavings in the casing.  It looks pretty minor but I'm wondering whether that is affecting the action of the focuser?  Is there anything I am missing?  I have been thinking it needs a focuser replacement.

Cheers!

[iapa]

If you have had it apart already, I’d remove any shavings, clean rack and pinion with a degreaser.

apply a little lubricant - I’ll leave others to suggest which.

Retension; SW don’t provide much in the way of help, but GSO make these for ORION as well as SW. So, their manual helps.

from memory, four screws hold cover plate on, and there are three other adjustments to tension the focus mechanism, the left and right should be loosened and gentry tighten tun til just in contact, the middle adjust the tension to stop the tube slipping.

Can try to look thing out again if necessary.

[scotty38]

I think he got fed up of waiting for a reply anyway 🤣 🤣