“This upgrade kit modifies the declination clutch system on Meade 7" through 12" LX200GPS telescopes and on the Meade 8" LX90 telescope. With EZ Clutch installed, lightly tightening the declination knob with two fingers is all that is required to hold even the most unbalanced scope firmly in position. You'll no longer have to turn the declination knob uncomfortably tight, or risk having the knob popping off as you tighten it to its breaking point. With the EZ Clutch you have enough ‘feel’ that can easily dial in sufficient declination tightness to hold the optical tube firmly, but still allow the drive to slip if you hit an obstruction.
“Meade's design utilises a ‘wet clutch’ system where two steel plates engage the aluminium declination drive gear. The space between these plates is lubricated to prevent the aluminium gear from galling and having aluminium chips falling onto the worm gear drive below. The EZ Clutch Kit converts Meade's clutch design to a ‘dry clutch’,. adding a specially developed friction plate to the system. The EZ Clutch installation procedure is simple and the 4 page photo illustrated instruction sheet contains detailed step by step instructions.
“While the ‘obvious’ fix was to add a larger knob as was used on the LX200 ‘classic’, Meade's new smaller ‘stylised’ knob comes with a smaller, weaker screw thread. It is generally considered poor engineering practice to tap an adjustment bolt into aluminium, as steel abrades aluminium, causing the aluminium threads to wear out quickly. Only the last 1/4" of the 10-24 steel clutch bolt threads into the aluminium trunnion, and the excessive force required to clamp the wet clutch plates will lead to premature failure of the aluminium thread. Since a larger knob would result in larger forces and accelerated thread wear, Peterson spent bit more time with the engineering and developed this easy clutch modification. EZ Clutch forces are light and will prolong the life of the critical aluminium thread indefinitely.”
Brand new and unopened, this kit is for sale because there are two different EZ Clutch kits and I bought the wrong one.
The 7" - 12" LX200GPS and LX90 telescopes all use a 3.5" diameter friction plate which this kit includes; the LX200R and the 14" LX200GPS scopes use a larger, 5" diameter clutch friction plate and this kit won’t fit them. My mistake is your saving:
$40 includes postage to anywhere in Australia. Inquiries by PM, please.
