Paul: The drive noise is what you'd hear if you touched the pointed end of a phillips screwdriver to a portion of the worm gear housing and the other end to your ear. I use the mounting bolts to avoid any moving parts. Otherwise the guiding is totally silent.
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Michael: This is some good advice. I'm afraid that it will be some time before I can get back to the hobby, darn that life thing.
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"Do you have a wavy washer in your clutch assembly? That, along with too much pressure could explain why the wear is both wavy and uneven." Yes I have the wavy washer, in the correct order. Now as to too much pressure, that's a possibility. My hand strength is very low and I've had to use a wrench to tighten the main axis clutches. So I could be putting too much pressure on the bearings. I tighten until I cannot move the scope manually.
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"I'd be most suspicious of binding in worm/ring gear interface."
I've spent a lot of time tuning this particular parameter, but I can certainly back off a little and see what happens.
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Thanks again for the great advice. I'll post again when I can do some controlled work with the new rig.
Tim
