Skywatcher mount servicing

[Geordie mc]

Hi everyone. My Sky-Watcher AZEQ6 GT mount, which is about 6 years old, seems to be giving me a few issues this season. The RA and Dec axes seem stiff making balance hard to get accurate and guiding isn’t as good as I used to get. I think it needs a service. I’m in South West France though so no idea where I could get this done. Does anyone know where I can get a technical manual for the mount or a good step by step online guide/video so I can do it myself? I’ve tried google and YouTube but not found anything that helps much so far. Better still would be somewhere I could get it done professionally or by someone who has experience. Happy to travel a few hundred Km or could ship if cost wasn’t too much due to weight! Any pointers much appreciated. Thank you.

[Geordie mc]

Hi. Further to my above post, I found a great video on Graham’s Astronomy Channel on YouTube that showed the strip down procedure.  Did my mount last night so just need a clear night to see if things have improved. I leaned all the old grease off and regressed everything with a light lithium grease. Fingers crossed. I know I’ll need to spend some time tweaking the backlash out of each axis but hoping I’ll get better guiding now. If you are an owner of the same mount I can confirm that the strip down is very straight forward and worth doing if you think your mount is a bit stiff. If I can do it anyone can!