· Get a Cloudy Nights T-Shirt · Submit a Review / Article Click here if you are having trouble logging into the forums Privacy Policy | Please read our Terms of Service | Signup and Troubleshooting FAQ | Problems? PM a Red or a Green Gu… uh, User You are not logged in. [Login] Entrance · Main Index · Search · New user · Who's Online FAQ · Calendar Equipment Discussions >> Mounts Previous   Index   Next   Threaded   Pages: 1 astro_baby scholastic sledgehammer Reged: 06/17/08 Loc: United Kingdom HEQ5 / Sirius EQ-G Strip Down Guide       #2914754 - 02/08/09 07:20 AM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Hi, Apologies its been ages since I posted here, between work and my kids I had to cut down the number of boards I posted on - Anyway - I thought I;d post up because for the past couple of weeks I have been working a guide for taking the Synta HEQ5 / Orion Sirius EQ-G to bits and relubricating it. I couldnt find any online guides that I was 'comfortable' with so decided to brave it and go it alone to take it to bits using ozastros guide but while I was doing the work to photograph each procedure and build a more comprehensive guide for other people like me who like the comfort of seeing pictures. The whole process took about 8 hours to take it to bits and reassmble the whole thing while getting pics of each step - my eldest boy helped me with all the fething and carrying and picture taking. It was then about a weeks worth of building the pages, writing it all up and verifying that the procedures were correct. Anyway I hope people may find it useful - the guides here HEQ5 Strip Down Edited by astro_baby (02/08/09 07:21 AM) Post Extras:       morten super member Reged: 07/22/08 Loc: Denmark Re: HEQ5 / Sirius EQ-G Strip Down Guide [Re: astro_baby]       #2914823 - 02/08/09 08:47 AM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Thank you very much for taking the time and effort to make this most useful guide. Have you noticed better tracking after having luning the mount? Morten Post Extras:       morten super member Reged: 07/22/08 Loc: Denmark Re: HEQ5 / Sirius EQ-G Strip Down Guide [Re: astro_baby]       #2914824 - 02/08/09 08:49 AM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Sorry for the typo. I ment after you lubed the mount did you see better tracking. Any PE data? M Post Extras:       Charlie Hein Postmaster Reged: 11/02/03 Loc: 26.06.08N, +80.23.08W Re: HEQ5 / Sirius EQ-G Strip Down Guide [Re: morten]       #2914828 - 02/08/09 08:54 AM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   This is really wonderful - a very good job! Charlie Post Extras:       astro_baby scholastic sledgehammer Reged: 06/17/08 Loc: United Kingdom Re: HEQ5 / Sirius EQ-G Strip Down Guide [Re: Charlie Hein]       #2915129 - 02/08/09 11:59 AM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   I dont have any PE data - I'm afraid I wouldnt even know how to acquire it at the moment - I'm just not THAT technical I'm afraid What I can tell you is that when it was stripped the mount showed none of the legnadary Synta black goop as a lubricant. It appeared to be lubricated with a heavyweight auto-grease BUT there wasn't much of it. SOme of the bearings were very dry and the worm gear appeared to have no grease at all. I also found a nasty bit of flaked off metal inside the RA worm gear and when I rubbed the oil and grease in the mount between my fingers I could detect traces of grit/swarf. I used to work with cars a lot and if this was a gearbox oil I'd be VERY worried. In fact I;d be thinking of pushing some bananas into the oil and selling it fast After cleaning it all up and relubing with lithium grease and realigning the worm gear ( which is a DREADFUL job ) the mount runs smoother and when balancing the scope it feels lighter and freeer. Prior to the rebuild the mount always felt like it was pushing againts treacle inside. I also found the worm end floats were done up way too tight causing the worms to bind badly. The main reason for carrying all of this out was I upgraded the mount to GoTo. I was happy with the mount prior to rebuild - in fact its tracking accuracy for observational purposes was astounding (I was looking at M57 - wandered off for about 40 minutes and when I returned M57 was still perfectly centred ). Unfortunately after the GoTo upgrade the RA axis would bind something terrible and cause motor stall and all sorts of nasty grinding noises. Probably with the standard motor running the mount at sidereal the mount could cope - running the GoTo steppers at a x9 slew obviously put more pressure on things. After the rebuild the GoTo works perfectly well as far as I can tell with less motor noise and overall the mount ( espcially the DEC axis ) is far, far smoother. Sorry if thats unscientific - its the best answer I can give you. Post Extras:       western stars journeyman Reged: 12/04/08 Loc: LA,CA Re: HEQ5 / Sirius EQ-G Strip Down Guide [Re: astro_baby]       #2920886 - 02/11/09 05:07 AM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Excellent work! Post Extras:       Timo Kuhmonen member Reged: 08/16/07 Loc: Espoo, Finland Re: HEQ5 / Sirius EQ-G Strip Down Guide [Re: western stars]       #2921767 - 02/11/09 03:58 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Thanks for the instructions, also from here... Post Extras:       w orchid Pooh-Bah Reged: 04/23/07 Loc: Tampa, Fl Re: HEQ5 / Sirius EQ-G Strip Down Guide [Re: Timo Kuhmonen]       #2922140 - 02/11/09 07:10 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Thank you for the instructions. Post Extras:       skyjim Carpal Tunnel Reged: 01/13/07 Loc: Long Island, NY Re: HEQ5 / Sirius EQ-G Strip Down Guide [Re: astro_baby]       #3001672 - 03/24/09 06:43 AM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Wow, I dont need a re lube but getting some very small amount of play in the DEC adjustment was made easy cause of this site, Great Stuff. Jim Post Extras:       Trebor777 Hazy Reged: 01/04/08 Loc: Connecticut - U.S. Re: HEQ5 / Sirius EQ-G Strip Down Guide [Re: astro_baby]       #3002178 - 03/24/09 01:14 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   That's very similar to the Atlas rebuild. Here and here. Last Thursday/Friday I replaced all the bearings in my Atlas with high quality ones. The time consuming part was the final adjustments of the worm, spur and rings gears. But it was well worth it. Good job on the rebuild page. It's alot more detailed them some others out there. Post Extras:       geezer@gpo member Reged: 11/06/05 Loc: Southwestern Oregon Re: HEQ5 / Sirius EQ-G Strip Down Guide [Re: astro_baby]       #3002385 - 03/24/09 02:57 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Warmest regards to you Astro Baby. This is the best I've seen on the subject. You have done a monumental service to all of us wannabe tuner-uppers who lack the whatever to try it for ourselves. We've too many thumbs and too little smarts to go it alone, but I'd follow you anywhere. Kim J. Post Extras:       astro_baby scholastic sledgehammer Reged: 06/17/08 Loc: United Kingdom Re: HEQ5 / Sirius EQ-G Strip Down Guide [Re: geezer@gpo]       #3034340 - 04/09/09 02:48 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Thanks guys - it was quite a task to do that lot. I keep hoping Synta will call me and offer me a free EQ6 in exchange for a well documented EQ6 manual. Post Extras:       Pages: 1 Previous   Index   Next   Threaded   Extra information 24 registered and 35 anonymous users are browsing this forum. 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