Altitude bolt stiff

[joselin]

Hi

I was trying to adjust the altitude on my EQ6 to do a polar alignment and i found that winding it down to 0 is fine but winding up is stiff as hell, is they something i can do to correct this ?

thanks

J

[SteveL]

dumb question, but are you undoing the bolt on the other side of the mount?

[GazOC]

As Steve says, you need to unwind the opposite bolt. Also when you are pushing weight up it helps if you "take" some of the weight of the mount yourself as you are doing it or the bolt may bend under the force (been there, done that!!)

[joselin]

dumb question, but are you undoing the bolt on the other side of the mount?

hi Steve

yes it is loose on the other side, i wondered if it might need greasing or the hole is at an angle.

[Milamber]

If you have the bolt undone so the mount is at 0 degeres then it will be almost impossible to raise it up again with just the bolt due to the angle the bolt will be hitting the pad inside. Try grabbing hold of the mount and pulling it round/down/up to where you want it and then seeing if that loosens the bolt any.

Arthur

[joselin]

If you have the bolt undone so the mount is at 0 degeres then it will be almost impossible to raise it up again with just the bolt due to the angle the bolt will be hitting the pad inside. Try grabbing hold of the mount and pulling it round/down/up to where you want it and then seeing if that loosens the bolt any.

Arthur

Hi Arthur

Tried that as well, got to 49d which my latitude but it was getting stiffer so a left there.

When both bolts are undone should you be able to move by hand ?

[astromerlin]

Hi, Mines the same, I struggled for ages to get it to the correct setting. I suggest the same as Milamber, loosen both off and move the mount by hand. The only consolation is when you get it to the correct setting you wont need to move it again unless you travel to a different location with it.

Cheers

John

[Milamber]

If both are undone then it should swing bacwards and forwards freely. If it does not then you are going to have to prise off the two round discs on either side of the mount and loosen the bolt used as a hinge. Unless it's a new mount - in which case the company you bought it from are going to have to do it.

Arthur

[Aza]

I would actually recommend taking the bolts out and replacing them with some decent ones before its too late!

The supplied bolts are cheap and nasty.

Mine bent and caused me massive problems!

Synta Telescope Cables

[joselin]

If both are undone then it should swing bacwards and forwards freely. If it does not then you are going to have to prise off the two round discs on either side of the mount and loosen the bolt used as a hinge. Unless it's a new mount - in which case the company you bought it from are going to have to do it.

Arthur

hmmmmmmmm, theres no movement at all when the bolts are loose

[joselin]

ok

i found the problem under the caps where the main bolt attaching the hinge are 3 insert screws, these were done up so tightly nothing was moving after taking it apart re-greasing and tighting the screws (not so tight) everthing freely moves

but now another question about the latitude marker disc, this had to be remove replacing exactly where it was before i noticed that with the mount wound down as far it would go ( horizantaly) the metal marker and the 0 are not aligned in fact its way out ? please tell if my physics here are wrong but when horizontal this is in fact 0 degrees ?

[GazOC]

Horizontal should be zero but remember that marker disk was stuck on in a Chinese factory, its best used as a rough guide. Nothing more.

[Milamber]

Good to hear you're sorted, and Gaz has it right - stick the cover back at zero but only use it as a reference not a hard and fast metric.

Arthur