[gregbradley]

You've been very patient. If I were you I would be sending it back for a replacement or a refund. We get this gear to image with not to tinker with for the next year.

A certain amount of tolerance is often required but the better manufacturers get it right straight out of the box. The PMX has been a disaster for SB with lots of QC problems. My one is probably one of the better ones but I still had to replace the worm and fix the cam adjustment.

You would have been better off with the new AP1100 or an older AP1200. You never hear about issues with AP gear.

SB has to be on a buyer beware status for their mounts. Just on this one small astro community here there have been at least 6 or more problem mounts over the last year. They have shown they are not in control of their quality and seem to find it acceptable that the buyer debugs/replaces parts on their brand new mount. Not even mentioning the question mark over PEC in the southern hemisphere.

Although when they do work though they are good. So its a quandary we find ourselves in there. SB obviously changed something from when they made their PME mounts. Possibly outsourcing components from China?? But whoever assembles them is clearly incompetent.

Greg.