One of the first things I did when I got the mount was cut my own clutch pads out of head gasket material so I wouldn't have to wrench down real tight on the clutch knob.
I'm probably not explaining myself well on my original post. ?By removing the crappy thrust bearings the ring gear drops down .018" so it has to be spaced back up with spacers. By doing that it puts the large 6010ZZ bearing into service. ?In stock form that bearing just centers the ring gear accurately. ?But no thrust loads are ever placed on it. ?Being that that bearing is very large (80mm) it can more than handle the thrust loads I'm putting on the mount.
For a test on the DEC axis I pulled off the worm block and then tightened the clutch knob down. ?I could literally hear the stock thrust bearing dragging because the rollers are cylindrical not tapered. ?It had a lot of drag with tight spots in the rotation.
after removing the thrust bearing and doing the same test the DEC axis would freewheel spin. ?The difference is night and day. ?And that's with the clutch knob cinched all the way.
So I"ve been running with the RA axis shimmed and tonight I'll try with both axis shimmed.
So far no ill effects. ?Seeing conditions have been horrible lately though and hoping for better seeing tonight.
-Rich-
