Grease is the word, is the word...

[great_bear]

Finally got down to regreasing my Sky-Watcher AZ4 the other day. To be honest, it had never been quite right since I removed the low-grade factory grease with something more modern.

If anyone's considering doing something similar then I thoroughly recommend "Plumbers Grease" from your local DIY store. It has the required amount of gooey-ness to ensure smooth action, but doesn't make the mount stick and - more importantly - performance seems consistent across different temperatures (which is a design consideration of this type of grease I believe).

My AZ4 now works superbly.

[John]

Thats a good reminder GB - thanks for posting it

I must do my AZ-4 - it's exhibiting a bit of "sticktion" at times on the altitude axis.

Are there any dissasembly pitfalls to avoid ? - it looks straightforward enough but you can't always be sure.

[great_bear]

Nope - dead simple.

Just keep loosening the altitude tensioner and underneath you'll find:

- A split washer for springiness

- A ball-race sandwiched between two steel washers

- The mount - on the other side of which, is:

- A very large nylon washer

- The altitude pivot with an attached axial bolt

The azimuth assembly is pretty much identical - but remember to support the mount head during disassembly such that it doesn't fall off in an uncontrolled manner once you've slackened everything off.

Whilst doing the azimuth, you might consider turning the azimuth scale ring upside-down so that the numbers actually run in the correct direction!

[John]

Thanks very much for that - it will be my weekend project - much more interesting than whatever my wife had planned for me to tackle

[great_bear]

Oh it only takes (literally) fifteen minutes.

- still - I'm sure you can string it out if needs be...

[astroimpulse]

I'm a big fan of motor CV grease. I've used it on so many thing apart from an actual CV joint! Bit overkill for mounts as it's great for high velocity moving parts.

Plumbers grease is a good idea