pmrid
23-07-2017, 05:19 PM
Wow, that was quite an experience. I bought a used NEQ6 that was very lightly used and nearly new. And it came with all the bits and bobs to do a Rowan belt mod. What could be easier, I asked myself. Wow!
Today is about the 7th of this saga. In that time, I have had to strip and reassemble the mount at least 5 times. I blame age and impatience. Age, because on several occasions, I reassembled without putting the delrin (sp) shims in the right places, forgot to tighten certain lug nuts and on it goes. Several times, I found I had overgreased or used the wrong grease. Once I found I had damaged a bearing in bullying it off.
Finding the right grease was also a trial. In he end I bought some Super Lube grease via eBay. Lovely stuff.
And muscling the worm and bearings off their various shafts was often quite brutal.
The hardest part, I found, was in getting the motors back in place and engaged with the belts. You have to do it by guess and good luck because you can't see and there is no tactile feedback. So it took me about four goes and as many wasted hours finding out which of the motors were - or were not - meshing. All in all, I would guesstimate this process took me about 24 hours spread over 7 days to get to the final point where, I am more or less happy to say it is done.
An unexpected problem was with the altitude (latitude) adjustment. It was as stiff and unyielding and a frozen brick. It was damn near impossible to finish a drift align because you just could not get the darned thing to move. So I had to bite the bullet and break away the trims on both sides of the mount to expose the shaft and the 3 lug screws that are underneath. There are 2 delrin or plastic washers in there. One of them was torn and jammed in and with the lug screw plate which is why the darned thing would not move. And the other was also deformed. But it now works fine, easily and is solid. But the two plastic shims are history.
Anyone wanting to venture down the path of a Rowan belt mod - and probably most others, is welcome to contact me for any of the many hard-learned trips and traps.
Peter
Today is about the 7th of this saga. In that time, I have had to strip and reassemble the mount at least 5 times. I blame age and impatience. Age, because on several occasions, I reassembled without putting the delrin (sp) shims in the right places, forgot to tighten certain lug nuts and on it goes. Several times, I found I had overgreased or used the wrong grease. Once I found I had damaged a bearing in bullying it off.
Finding the right grease was also a trial. In he end I bought some Super Lube grease via eBay. Lovely stuff.
And muscling the worm and bearings off their various shafts was often quite brutal.
The hardest part, I found, was in getting the motors back in place and engaged with the belts. You have to do it by guess and good luck because you can't see and there is no tactile feedback. So it took me about four goes and as many wasted hours finding out which of the motors were - or were not - meshing. All in all, I would guesstimate this process took me about 24 hours spread over 7 days to get to the final point where, I am more or less happy to say it is done.
An unexpected problem was with the altitude (latitude) adjustment. It was as stiff and unyielding and a frozen brick. It was damn near impossible to finish a drift align because you just could not get the darned thing to move. So I had to bite the bullet and break away the trims on both sides of the mount to expose the shaft and the 3 lug screws that are underneath. There are 2 delrin or plastic washers in there. One of them was torn and jammed in and with the lug screw plate which is why the darned thing would not move. And the other was also deformed. But it now works fine, easily and is solid. But the two plastic shims are history.
Anyone wanting to venture down the path of a Rowan belt mod - and probably most others, is welcome to contact me for any of the many hard-learned trips and traps.
Peter