Sounds like a good name for an AstroPub don't it ?
With the on going poor weather over here, high thin cloud and high humidity I decided to bite the bullet and sort out both the mount and my pier construction. The pier is a Heath Robinson thing that grew as I changed my focus and the mount has been doing some weird backlash things.
So the mount came off and went into the workshop. I then ripped off the rat cage from hell and filled the bottom of the pier with rocks to about 3/4 full, sealed that then using the rat cage as a jig filled the rest with concrete almost to the top with the 4 x M8 threaded rods cemented in. The M12 rod to the slab below is in an alum tube so can still move and once the plug of cement is cured it will be pulled down tight again.
The pier now weighs about 3 x what it did previously and there is more to come.
Following astrobabys instructions ( excellent btw) I disassembled the DEC section, reasonably easy to do, just be careful. I checked all the bearings and tested for play in the worm. Found nothing obvious so I washed out all the grease from the worm and the matching wheel with CRC. Picked up a few very small bits of brass in the bottom of the container, swarf or raw edges maybe. No play in the worm bearings end to end so left those alone. Relubed with Lithium Grease ( weird stuff ! ) and re-assembled.
I had a go at attacking the RA section but couldn't budge the locking ring at the bottom of the shaft, Stupid idea, a round 'nut' !! Doesn't even have a slot for a ring spanner. Checked the RA for play and seemed all ok, I'll deal with that when and if the problem re-occurs when I test it.
I did an on bench adjustment of the backlash for DEC and it seems pretty good but will need to be confirmed under power. The grease and condition internally was all good when I opened it up so fingers crossed it may have just been a bit of contamination causing the problem.
Next stage is to setup the mold for the pour for the pier head. I'm adding 260mm to the top of the pier with the 4 x m8 rods encased. The centre will be hollow so I can reach the nut for the M12 rod inside and I'll probably add a side entry so I can bring some of the wiring through.
I'll post some before and after and a few progress pix later.
It's been a good day ....