After the last imaging session I had I noticed a little bounce in my mount on the RA axis.  I decided I could live with that for the night and then resolve it at a later date.  The following weekend I spent with my parents and my kiddos at a local kids resort with an indoor water park.  The weekend after that we were all sick with one strain or another of common cold.  Most of us had different symptoms and a different duration but we’re all still recovering two weeks later.

Today I decided I was well enough to tear into the mount and deduce what was going on with the RA axis.  A quick disassembly also uncovered a problem with the Dec housing.   It cracked at the screw holes when it whacked into the mount after being left unattended during my M42 imaging run.  The WarpsDrive mod certainly didn’t fail and everything is as tight as it was when I finished the mod.  I have uncovered the source of the mount’s RA challeneges though.  The preload bearing for the worm gear needed to be tightened just a smudge.  I’d say less than 1/16th of a rotation to take all the lag out of the RA axis.  The mount seems to respond without any noticeable drag on either axis so I’d say I have it licked.  I need to get it outside and recalibrate the drive motors but that can wait for another day.