[Jasp05 (Aaron)]

I'm having a play with adjusting the backlash on my mount. and I have a few questions regarding the process.

Firstly, if I grab the head of the dec axis I can feel a "knock" as I spin side to side. (Clutch is engaged, and the knock feels like its the slop between worm drive and ring gear teeth.)

I can remove this knock by engaging the worm gear tighter in the mesh. So I assume this knock is due to improper meshing of the worm drive. ( I should mention my mount has had the rowan belt kit installed by the previous owner).

I'm assuming you would ideally have no movement left/right on the dec axis when clutch is engaged with no sticking/ tight points throughout a 360 degree travel of the axis?

And in regards to no sticking/ tight points throughout the travel of the worm gear. How much is too tight? I can press one finger tip against the spur gear and spin it freely. some spots are very slightly tighter (Not sure if there actually tighter or if its me imagining things). I generally test these spots by going back and forth over them which usually doesn't reproduce the sticky spot.

Is it ok to have a few slightly stickier spots throughout the travel of the gear?(I assume not as this would play into periodic errors).

Or should it be completely consistent in the full 360 degree travel? (to be completely consistent the knock mentioned above cannot be eliminated). Although now that I think about it, having the mount weighted slightly in one direction should stop that being an issue? by taking out the slop that allows the knock?.

Hope this made sense. If not let me know and I'll try and explain further.

Thanks in advance.