If you grease an EQ-5 incorrectly…

A used Skywatcher EQ5 was brought to us, and it was jammed in the declination axis.

Upon inspection, we noticed the typical behavior when something is wrong with the grease: the axis required increased force at the beginning of its movement, then it became sluggish.

Upon disassembling the declination axis, the following became apparent:




You can clearly see the resinified fat on the left.





Clear traces here, too.

It's not surprising that this axle was no longer running smoothly.

A grease had been used that wasn't intended for this application at all. In combination with other greases, a reaction seemed to have occurred that caused the resin to harden.

This incorrect grease had become so resinous that neither isopropanol nor acetone helped. The miracle cure here is brake cleaner; it removes the dirt very easily.

After cleaning, the axle looked like this:



150 / 5.000
We use the following grease for the mounts: Liqui Moly LM 47 3510 Long-Term Grease

After reassembly, the mount worked perfectly again.

Karsten