Telescope Reviews: Refurb mount from Meade outlet store

I got my refurb mount last Tuesday, so I could have GOTO for my Intes MK67 Deluxe Mak Cass...when I first got the mount, I could pretty much tell that it was a returned unit just thrown in a box.

Initial problems:
1. The equatorial head bottom would not fit into the casted tripod head piece - it was a bad casting.
2. One of the altitude adjustment screws was missing.
I was really frustrated, because I couldn't even put the *bleep* thing together! I thought I would give Meade a chance to help.
Resolution: I called Meade on Wednesday morning, and by Friday (I live about 50 miles from Meade) I received a brand new tripod head piece, and a brand new set of altitude adjustment screws. Everything went together perfectly. Score one for Meade tech support!

Second set of problems:
1. The motors seemed to run very rough, especially in R/A, and always slewed at max speed in Declination in one direction.
2. The declination motor cover was touching the declination axis, rubbing the mount when slewing.
2. The polar scope was hard to adjust.
Resolution: I pulled off the motors, and inspected the worm positioning screws. One of the RA screws was so loose it was practically falling out. I rescrewed/adjusted the screws on both axes, until the motor mesh gears turned easily, and replaced the motors. Then, I adjusted the 4 allen head screws that position the declination motor cover. After doing this, and using the calibrate motors routine (that fixed the dec axis max speed problem) the slewing improved by about 1000%. I then pulled out the polar scope, and removed the torn up tape wrapped around the set screw area, and replaced the scope. The scope now seemed ready for initial prep.

Preparing for first use:
1. Adjust the polar scope - not too hard, I used a mountain top about 4 miles away.
2. Align OTA with mount - after adjusting polar scope, I used a .25mm shim (extracted from a spark plug gapper) in between the front of the dovetail bar and scope to point the scope to the same mountain top as the polar scope.
3. Replace tripod legs - I had already made a custom set of redwood legs/spreader for my Orion Sky View Deluxe mount (rock solid) that fit the LXD55 tripod head perfectly!
4. Train mount - easy

First light: I polar aligned, set to polar home position, and used the easy align option.

WOW! As I chose stars, double stars, and deep sky objects, all objects in all portions of the sky appeared in a 20mm eyepiece (90x - 0.58 degrees TFOV); better than I had dreamed for first use of a $242 mount (with a little elbow grease)!!!!!

Only remaining issues: When I tried to GOTO Jupiter, the Moon, and constellations, the telescope went completely the wrong direction in each case (Firmware version 26c) - does anyone know if this is a firmware issue? I will try to upgrade to the newest version to see if this corrects the problems.

Greg