HEQ5 mount Srtipping regreasing and rebuilding

[anthony.tony]

Hello there has any body got a link that shows how too strip down an HEQ5 and grease and assemble it again.This is not the GOTO mount just the smaller one to the standard Atlas EQ6 mount. Reguard's Tony

[dugnsuz]

EQ5 strip-down...
http://www.astronomyboy.com/cg5/
Not too sure how similar the 2 mounts are but might help
Doug

[anthony.tony]

Not too sure how similar the 2 mounts are but might help..Hello the mount is bigger than that one its drives are internal Tony.:hi::hi::hi:That is similar too EQ-5
Doug[/quote]

[monoxide]

http://ozastro.dyndns.org/index.html

scroll about half way down the page to 'My HEQ5 Project'
lots of good info there :thumbsup:

[anthony.tony]

Hello There Is there a website That shows how to Strip a SYNTA HEQ5 or HEQ6 Mount with Images of stripdown and rebuild as well as Instructions Reguard's Tony

[monoxide]

those written instructions are the only ones i've seen that are actually for the HEQ5, most of the others are for similar mounts that wont really apply to the HEQ5 atleast not in the detail you're looking for..

i havent pulled mine down yet but im planning on it, easiest way i can see is to take a detailed log/photos as you strip it down and you cant go wrong by following that in reverse.

i cant imagine it being difficult to pull down and re-assemble it, the only thing that will take a bit of fiddling will be the worm adjustment when you're finished but theres plenty of info on that around the place

[anthony.tony]

Thanks one of the blokes in our group owns one but it vibrates some times making high magnification viewing difficult.He is trying to fix it.He had trouble trying to puul it apart. Tony

[anthony.tony]

I've found it complete HEQ6 or Atlas EQ6 Stripdown Grease and Rebuild .http://www.beevo.com/rework.htm. Plus this website has a lot of other Stuff. Tony

[astro-baby]

Hope you'll forgive a pom for posting here - I noticed this thread while I was doing a bit of work on a guide I am writing and thought I;d at least let you know its there - it maye be useful for some of your members if they are contemplating a strip down of the HEQ5 mount.

The guides located at http://www.adur-astronomical.com/heq5-rebuild/heq5-m1.htm

Its not fully completed yet but will be by the weekend.

Apologies if I am not supposed to link to stuff here but I thought it may be of use.

[monoxide]

nice, thanks for the post.
will be very helpful when i get around to it.

welcome to IIS too :)

[astroron]

:hi:Melanie, and:welcome:I am a Dob user, but found your post well written and easy to understand:thumbsup:

[pjphilli]

Thanks Melanie and Tony for the two good guides for stripping/cleaning the HEQ5 mount. I have saved these for future reference. The only problem that I have had is that the backlash, particularly in DEC seemed excessive. When I removed the side cover I found that it was an easy task to remove the backlash from the exposed gears using the excellent adjusting mechanisms. PHD now does only one "hop" in the "removing backlash" sequence instead of about 5 beforehand. Looking at the stripdown files I get the impression that this mount is well built - apart from manufacturing "debris" left inside!
Cheers Peter

[astro-baby]

The Synta HEQ5 and its Orion Sirius EQ-G are pretty good mounts. I have returned to astro after a 20 year absence and believe me 20 years ago something like the HEQ5 would have cost a bomb.

Its quite a well made bit of kit, some of the engineering is a little strange - the worm adjustment seems overly fiddly and older HEQ5s and EQ6 are reputed to suffer from manufacturing debris left in the mount, poor overall set-up from the factory and the almost legendary block goop which is the grease the factory uses.

My HEQ5 is about a year old and it worked fine and reliably until I upgraded to GoTo when motor bind.stall became an issue so I took the mount to bits.

The killer to the RA axis and the big reason for the motor stall and bind issue was a nasty bit of flaked off metal inside the mount there was also a gritty feel to the lubricant which suggested swarf and general junk in the works. The internal grease wasn't the black goop but seemed like a fairly decent heavy duty auto grease BUT there was nowehere near enough of it inside - the worms were almost dry and the bearings had nowehere near enough grease. At the slow speeds of a non-GoTo mount it was probably adequate - with a GoTo driving the slew at 9x rate the problems obviously came up.

After rebuild and resetting the worm engagement/adjustment the mount definitely runs smoother - prior to rebuild when you moved the mount around manually it always had a kind of 'treacle' feel to it - rubbery almost.

After rebuild regreasing the mount is completely smooth and balancing the scope is far more precise.

Warning though to anyone doing this - the worm adjustment is a complete swine to get right - budget for a fair few hours to be happy with it.

Anyway - thanks for letting me post I'll push off back to my Northern cloudy skies now and just be envious of your undoubted clear southern ones :):):)

[RobF]

So right Melanie. My 2nd time around is 30yrs later, and I'm constantly (pleasantly) amazed at the great quality gear available now, even if a lot of mine is cheaper chinese (Synta) copies. Modern optics, mounts, eyepieces and DSLRs - I can finally go hunting for faint fuzzies or whatever and find something! :lol::thumbsup:

[pjphilli]

Hi Melanie
Thanks for the your additional insights! I am of the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mindset but in view of what you have said I may just have a peek into my HEQ5Pro innards when the mood takes!
Cheers Peter

[astro-baby]

JUst to let you know my strip down guide for the HEQ5 / Orion Sirius is now at http://www.astro-baby.com/heq5-rebuild/heq5-m1.htm

Its moved to my own site.

[dugnsuz]

Cheers Melanie - your guide was a lifesaver for me...Thanks (now bookmarked again)
Doug:thumbsup:

[RobF]

Same here too with regards to DEC backlash Peter - Guidemaster likes to nag me about it, even though it seems to compensate admirably. I'll have to get the sides off and have a peek sometime now too. This guide gives me a lot more confidence.

[astro-baby]

Hope you dont mind me doing a little self publicity but I thought some of you may be interested to know along with the HEQ5 guide I now have a comprehensive EQ6 / Orion Atlas guide as well.

An astro-imaging friend of mine was having problems with an EQ6 that suffered poor PEC performance and asked me if I would like to have a look.

As it gave me the chance to create another guide which I hope will be of use to the astro community I jumped in.

The guide is located at http://www.astro-baby.com/astro_baby_telescope_help_and_advic e.htm

I hope its of use to some of you if you ever have to take one of these to bits.

Mel

[TrevorW]

Hey Malanie well done