At a recent public viewing night I discovered that the LX200 had a severe RA slop problem. After a small panic, I continued with the viewing evening rather gingerly and treated the old girl with respect and care.
After a panic phone call to Mick Pinner (Thanks mate Deal still a goer) and a small chat for 40 minutes I decided that I will eventually change the mount to an EQ6. In the meantime I had to fix up the old girl.
So with some help from my son (an we all know how much help a 3 ½ year old can be don’t we) I set about following some destructions from the MAPUG.COM site.
Now the problem was that there is a lot of slop in the RA direction even when the RA clutch is engaged on full. The first thing I did was remove the cover plate to the RA shaft housing. Then I laid the scope on its belly and then removed a bolt with a large washer.
Next, I followed the destructions and gently persuaded the base to leave its housing. It did so very easily, too easy actually. It was then I found out that the bearings at the base had dropped (but that was 1 part of the problem) and I had the base in my hands. Using a small piece of timber and a rubber mallet, I tapped the bearing back into position. Hurray I though I had fixed the problem and promptly reinserted the base and did everything back up.
Had I fixed it? No way, but it was better. So I did a strange thing, I undid the base plate and observed the RA drive. Note that this drive is meant to have some give as it is spring loaded in one direction only, at right angles to the worm drive sprocket. But mine was moving in all directions. Ohh nooo.
So off with the base, and I checked the worm motor drive and the grease around it and then with the appropriate Allen hex key tightened up the motor. It was loose, very loose. So after all that I placed it back on the mount and did everything up.
Now the moment of truth
After everything was nipped up and secure I then turned on the RA clutch on and it worked, no movement.
Relief at last, but not perfect. I have found that the wedge and I don’t mix so I will be giving the scope a go on an EQ6 sometime in the near future. For now I have at least repaired the scope enough to get a rough alignment for public viewing nights, but not for photography.
i just wanted to share this with you guys, I hope you enjoyed it!
