[peter_4059 (Peter)]

I got underway with my hypertune today. All went pretty smoothly although the RA shaft bearings were on pretty tight and took some convincing to get off - the original bearings will all be replaced with new ones.

I was pleased to find the source of slop in my RA axis - the shaft screws into the motor housing and is held in place with three set screws - these were loose and the shaft was not fully screwed into the housing.

I also found bits of metal mixed in wiht the grease in one of the bearings and the famous black grease in both worm mechanisms.

The spacers in both RA and DEC were cracked.

After a degrease I'm pleased to report that all the gears and worms were in excellent condition.

Tomorrow it's off to a friend with a lathe to ease the RA shaft slightly so assembly should be a bit easier. I'm waiting on some replacement hybrid ceramic worm bearings and spacers to arrive from the states then I'll be putting it all back together.

Here's some picks of progress so far: