gunk inside mounts!

[anthony]

I was trying to sort some problems with an eq3/2 recently and whilst in bits I got covered in the sticky, sticky stuff they use to lubricate it with!! What awful stuff.

i fancy cleaning that out and wondered what poeple use. Hot water and soap? Does petrol work? What is best/easiest?

I was going to relubricate with white lithium grease unless anyone has a better idea or warnings.

Cheers all

[JohnC]

I found hotwater did not work.

Parafin seemed best, they relube with white lithium grease.

The difference is startling.

[anthony]

Cheers for that.

Where would you typically get paraffin from then? I have never had to get any. Mainstream hardware stores?

Off to google paraffin

[JohnC]

Harware stores usually have stock

[pbyrne]

You can always try a degreaser and an old toothbrush to get into the teeth of the cogs.

Degreaser usually comes in a can and can be sprayed into those hard to reach places.

White lithium is a good grease to relube with.

[yesyes]

I'm planning to do this as well as soon as the warranty on my mount has expired (this October). I haven't thought about how to get rid of the old grease. Somehow I imagined using WD40. Would that be ok? Or warm water with loads of dish washing liquid?

I already have the lithium grease...

[anthony]

I saw online that B&Q do paraffin.

YesYes - don't know if WD40 will dissolve this stuff. If it does you might need a lot. Quite a lot of the inner surfaces that contact as loaded with it.

[TopHouse]

Turps/white spirit works fine, if you go to B&Q, get one of the plastic mini roller trays they do for about a £1 as they are really useful for this job, and you need an old toothbrush.

[yesyes]

White Spirit, that's a good idea. Just need to remember not to smoke at the same time..;-)

[Astro_Baby]

Methylated spirit works well as does hot watare and lots of fairy liquid. I'd advise againts serious degreasers as they have the potential to mess up the finsih of the mount. I used a heavy duty commercial degreaser on a TAL mount recently and the degreasing agent destroyed the painted finish.

As it happened I didn't care as itw as going to be fully stripped for repainting but it would have been a disaster if it had happened on a mount with perfectly good paintwork.

[barkis]

My suggestion would be White Spirit. It isn't expensive, and I don't think there is anything susceptible inside the EQ3/2 mount.

I'm sure the gunge is introduced into the build to dampen any play in the gear mating. Make any adjustments, and adhere to the given tolerences, before adding any lubricant. Although that goes without saying. You will get a marked improvement I'm sure.

Ron.

[TopHouse]

One thing I found with mine (EQ5) when i did it, and whte spirit works VERY well, is that after lubing with lithium and fine tuning everything, ie no play in worm gears etc, i actually had to tighten them up a touch more as it moved a bit too easily.

[onmehedson]

Anthony, how easy was it to dismantle the mount? I have been wanting to re-grease my EQ3-2 but I am unsure about what lurks inside.

I was wondering if you could possibly give a quick run down on what order the various bits are taken apart..thanx..

[m.tweedy]

Astronomy boy does a cg5 stripdown. Dont know if it similar to your mount.

http://www.astronomyboy.com/cg5/Astronomy_Boy_CG-5.pdf

hope it helps

[haitch]

I tried the proper spray degreaser on an Eq3 once and found it fairly ineffective. Just goes to show it really must be treacle and not grease they're using!

[sbooder]

When I did my eq5 revamp (Astronomy Boy: CG-5 Mount Improvements style), I bought some expensive de-greaser made by 3in1. It was rubbish, so I tried White Spirit, wow, it did the job easy as sin.

[yeti monster]

Gunk , is the ideal degreaser, it's what I use in my parts washer. Parafin will also do the job and wd-40 shifts crude oil very well, so will have little issue when it comes up against the strange black stuff.

Soapy water doesn't really shift grease from all the niggly bits without the addition of elbow grease.

Lithium grease (LM2) will be more than adequate, or you could go all exotic and use Molybdinum Disulphide grease, which is a nice sticky dark grey/black colour, as used in CV joints etc. (possibly what they smear into mounts anyway).

Halfords etc. supply grease in 500ml cans, which will give you enough to do about 100 mounts.

[yeti monster]

I used a heavy duty commercial degreaser on a TAL mount recently and the degreasing agent destroyed the painted finish.

I've experienced this with some degreasers. This is why I use Gunk , which I buy in 5 Litre cans (I do a lot of degreasing of motorcycle and Land Rover parts) from my local car spares shoppe. I have yet to find a better degreaser.