Dec Axis

[dark knight]

Well it looks as though my mount has gone lame. The dec axis seems seized, it won't even budge with the clutch undone (the motor turns), so tomorrow is post mortem day for my poor eq5 synscan.....I hope I can salvage it otherwise my hobby will be cut short for the foreseeable future.....dohhhhhhhh....

[yeti monster]

You might have to goto pushto! Hope it isn't terminal!

[Merlin66]

If you disconnect the final transfer gear....does the motor still operate? If so then check the worm resistance manually by accessing the end of the worm shaft and turning it ( if you can)

Just preliminary "problem solving" before you put it under the knife!!!

[dark knight]

Woohoooo, stripped the mount down at a friends who happens to be an aircraft engineer. He set about the mount to take it a part and was amazed to find that there are no bearings (ball race type) internally on the dec axis. Basically all points of contact within are metal to metal. What appears to have happened is the alloy which forms the dec housing and internal dec axis have got hot and semi fused together due to a lack of lubrication. He was amazed there is no way to grease the surfaces without taking the mount apart. Anyhow he liberally regreased the surfaces, put it all back together and it works. The dec axis now feels silky smooth when rotated and I am eternally grateful to him. The best is his workshop (very well kitted out with lathes etc) and house is only 100yds up the road to which I now have access any time. He's even got a semi built plane in his upstairs lounge!!!!!

[dark knight]

Hi Yeti, I couldn't even go goto as the axis was solid and wouldn't even turn with the clutch slackened off.

Thanks Merlin for the sound advice, it gave me a good starting point for diagnostics...

Carl

[dobserver]

Can I just say how grateful I am to our neighbour for helping Carl fix this problem. Life would have been pretty grim in our house if the problem was terminal for the mount! And it was fun seeing Carl dancing with relief as he stepped through the door with it fixed. Cheers Dave, I owe you several pints