I recently obtained a new HEQ5 mount.
One thing to be wary of is the quality of the fittings. The clutch locks can be easily broken (mine arrived from the factory broken).
The bearings and worms were rough, and required polishing of the worm gear and complete bearing replacement to obtain smooth operation. I used hybrid ceramic-ball bearings to replace the original units, which eliminated all notching in the axes.
The old way to set up proper gear lash (each worm has a drive pinion, a counter gear, and the worm drive gear) would be to place a piece of notebook paper (not printer paper) in the gear mesh and crush the paper, giving a consistent lash of about 0.0010". However, the gears are not as precisely cut as I expected, and as a result the mesh is too open for good running characteristics. The mesh should be adjusted so that there is no discernible movement in the counter gear (the gear in the middle of the 3-gear train).
I will install the Rowan belt drive modification in the future.
Just a heads-up of some findings on my mount.
Kev
One thing to be wary of is the quality of the fittings. The clutch locks can be easily broken (mine arrived from the factory broken).
The bearings and worms were rough, and required polishing of the worm gear and complete bearing replacement to obtain smooth operation. I used hybrid ceramic-ball bearings to replace the original units, which eliminated all notching in the axes.
The old way to set up proper gear lash (each worm has a drive pinion, a counter gear, and the worm drive gear) would be to place a piece of notebook paper (not printer paper) in the gear mesh and crush the paper, giving a consistent lash of about 0.0010". However, the gears are not as precisely cut as I expected, and as a result the mesh is too open for good running characteristics. The mesh should be adjusted so that there is no discernible movement in the counter gear (the gear in the middle of the 3-gear train).
I will install the Rowan belt drive modification in the future.
Just a heads-up of some findings on my mount.
Kev