s some will recall, I had severe issues with my NEQ6 that was not holding in Dec - it was so severe that a star would drift off the autoguider screen within a minute.
I replaced the motor board - no difference. I ran checks on all my cables - no problems. I ran out of ideas, but then, when I had the motor board out again, I noticed something that SHOULD NOT have been there.
So, not getting an answer from Tasco as to whether pulling the motors myself voided warranty (it did NOT with my HEQ5, and Ron at Sirius assured me I could "fiddle"), I pulled both out. The RA was fine, but the Dec had what appeared to be acrylic lathe turnings, or even solidified big lumps of cyanoacrylate glue (superglue) on the Dec big cog, and also remnants of the same material around the base of the small motor cog - obviously, some foreign material left after assembly had finally shaken loose, and got itself munched by the Dec gears. There was still a crescent slice of this detritus stuck tot he face of the small cog's grease, and the grease had turned a black, smokey colour (the rest of the grease on this mount is yellow like vaseline).
So, I removed the detritus, regreased it all, remounted it (with minimal backlash as far as I could tell), tested it. All good, and quieter than before
Had my first opportunity to test it in action tonight, and it performed absolutely flawlessly - tracking was "round stars", and tracking near zenith was not an issue any longer. It handled being pointed lowish north with the weight out horizontal (tracking M1) flawlessly - M1 ended up being my only photo run - all of 2 subs - before the fast moving scud started here in SEQ.
Anyway, I am happy with the mount again at this stage, and have shelved the idea to replace it at this point in time.
