HEQ5/EQ6 Counterweight Shaft The HEQ5 and EQ6 come with a fairly short counterweight shaft that retracts into the declination axis. The design works, but the shaft, by design, is slightly off-centre when locked and is fairly thin. Doug Dieter provides a new shaft that is 5.5mm thicker than the original and is 432mm long. This, for the HEQ5, is a bit long but there is a lot of room to work. Also, the new shaft threads into the end of the declination axis meaning that it is much stiffer and stays on-centre. Some work, of course, is needed to ready the mount for the new shaft. Remove the original counterweight shaft by: Remove the dovetail holder by loosening the three upper setscrews and lifting out the holder. Unlock the counterweight shaft and remove it from the upper end by giving it a good push. Remove the 'nut' on the end of the declination axis by loosening the three embedded setscrews. Remove the counterweight shaft locking lever. You're now ready to start the work. To start with run a 7/8-16 tap into the hole where the counterweight shaft came through. No drilling is required. Then you have to bore out the holes in the counterweights to 22.3mm. Reassemble the mount. Don't put the 'button' back into the threaded hole where the counterweight lock lever sat but put the lock lever back in to fill the hole and protect the threads. Back to the HEQ5 Project page Back to Ozzzy's Astronomy page