Skywatcher focusing assembly reattachment problems

[Dougie Smart]

Hi All, 

I was wondering if someone can advise me on reattaching my focusing assembly on my Skywatcher 200PDS?

I made the mistake of purchasing a motorised focuser from Sky-Watcher and due to poor instructions took the whole assembly off. 

This involved 6 screws (photos attached), and when screwing them all back in carefully, the bar underneath does not meet with the focusing barrel and so the focusing wheels just spin and are not in contact with the barrel. 

I have asked a contact from Skywatcher to send me an exploded view of this assembly, but have waited quite a while. 

Does anyone have a schematic of this assembly they could send through, or any advice of how I can get my scope working again. 

It's rather frustrating 😩. 

Hope you can help. 

All the best, Dougie

[Peter Drew]

• The assembly looks ok so it must just be the adjustment.  I suggest trying backing off the central screw and tightening the ones either side of it, small increments.  If this doesn't improve matters it may need the reverse, slackening the two outer screws and tightening the central one.  What's needed is to reduce any clearance between the shaft and the flat on the focuser drawtube.   🙂

[AdeKing]

There is a good set of instructions here that I think might help. This is for a Skywatcher refractor Crayford but I think the mechanism is the same.

Google found this on SGL but I don't know who originally posted it, so my apologies to them if they read this.

Listen to @Peter Drew as he knows what he is talking about, and the assembly looks right though make sure you have the 4x tiny o-rings in place around the 4x long retaining screws as these allow the fine tuning of the pressure.

Looking at your 3rd image they appear to be missing from the 4 main attachment screws if my memory serves me correctly.

They are a pain to keep in place when reassembling, a real test of your patience.

PDF Adjusting the Skywatcher Focuser.pdf

Edited January 31, 2021 by AdeKing
Added more info

[Dougie Smart]

Perfect Gents, thanks so much for your help. I'll have another go on it tomorrow. Hopefully the screws in the middle will do the magic trick. Thanks again, much appreciated your time in answering 👍

[Dougie Smart]

Telescope sorted. Once you guys advised me, it took 5 mins to repair. Brilliant 😁