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You are just the man I need to talk to David. I hope Bart doesn't mind if we talk grease, in particular, old grease.
The attached image is the Dec shaft of a G11 I stripped over the weekend. The grease was like dried honey. All things being equal, how old would this grease be? I've not seen grease this dried before. Could this happen in a couple of years. The roller and taper bearings were frozen solid and I didn't think I would get one of the roller bearings moving again. There was some serious WD40 and degreaser and rotational force with a rubber handle of a hammer to get the rollers to finally move.
The mount has been permanently mounted in an observatory since it was bought. I'd be interested in your thoughts.
And Bart here's the layout of a GM8 (all but identical to a G11)
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