Meade Focuser Help

[thunderchildobs]

My 14" Meade LX200 ACF seems to developed a focuser and / or focuser lock problem.

The focuser seems "soft". When after much effort I got the scope to focus, I turned the focus lock to the lock and lost focus by so much, that I could then achieve focus using the the Meade Zero shift focuser.
There also seems a lot of image shift when focusing.

Can anyone offer suggestion or help on doing maintenance on the focuser.
I am in Ipswich, SE Qld.

After this a bit of help on collimation would also be helpful.

Brendan

[Merlin66]

I assume we're talking about basic mirror shift focusing?
One thing I learnt about my Meade Lx200's and that was to regularly say once a month run the focuser through full travel a couple of times....this effectively re-spreads the grease along the baffle and helps to stabilise the mirror.
If the mirror is always just moving around the same spot the grease is extruded from that area, and the mirror gap to the baffle slightly increases giving unwanted movement.
Just my 2c

[thunderchildobs]

This is something I will need to try. The scope is always used with the same camera, so the mirror would always be in the same spot.