Guest VikN46 Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Can anyone please help?Mount: EQ5 Pro Synscan.So last night I set up as normal, polar aligned etc. I then did my usual 3 star alignment. First star fine, then second star no where near the target. I doubled checked I had entered everything correctly and yes all ok. Tried again mount going so far then despite the RA motors doing their thing the mount itself was not moving.Tried several times and still the same thing kept happening.So Hubby brought it back inside for me and I and rotated it slowly by hand and it seems a bit stiff.It is 14 months old and I have never had any problem before in fact it has performed better than I expected, it's balanced and it isn't overloaded weight wise.DEC rotation is fine.If any one could help I would be so grateful as I don't want to do something to make it worse or break it this would really scupper my fun as being 7 months pregnant all spare cash at the moment is taken for.If any more info needed please let me know. I don't know too much about the internal workings of a mount or the names of the parts other than cogs and grease so please bear with or give me a idiots guide I wont be offended Thanks in advance.Vik Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xanthic Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 The standard Skywatcher grease seems something akin to earwax and I'm pretty sure degrades over time. You want some lithium grease (a couple of quid from B+Q) to replace it. If you want to strip down your mount yourself, this is a pretty good guide to getting it apart and greased up - http://www.astro-baby.com/heq5-rebuild/heq5-m1.htm If like me, you're not so keen,have a word with Graham about it. He did mine and put in the belt upgrade at the same time; a sterling job on both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheila Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 talk to Graham on here he knows all about that... the grease is black treacle in there i think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest VikN46 Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Thanks both, taken apart and adjusted and seems to be working much better, well moving as it should with and without weight and scope and yes the grease is really thick, black and pretty disgusting so I think I will clean it up and get some lithium grease on there too and see how it goes. Thanks again Vik Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Ive never had any probkrms with my heq5 and lubrication, about 6 years on and still with the sane grease plus it fkatlines in phd during guiding although I feel I shoukd do it sometime but why fix something thats not broke. It sounds a bit like your ra lock may have been binding or not releasing fully Vicky, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweedledee Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Hopefully it is nothing too serious, and the panic is over. Looking forward to seeing more of your excellent images Vicky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ibbo Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 sounds like it needed a spot of adjustment my main mount needs adjustment about 4 times a year - I think its down to a changne in temperature with mine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest VikN46 Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 Well my EQ5 is all cleaned greased and reassembled, quiet and smooth with no stiffness on rotation. Just need a clearish night to test it out now, fingers crossed it works as well as it did before I quite enjoyed the task and learnt something new too. Thanks for the support everyone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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