EZ Clutch Kit

Meade’s design utilizes a “wet clutch” system where two steel plates engage the aluminum declination drive gear.  The space between these plates is lubricated to prevent the aluminum gear from galling and having aluminum chips falling onto the worm gear drive below.  The EZ Clutch Kit converts Meade’s clutch design to a “dry clutch,” adding a specially developed friction plate to the system.

Meade’s older LX200 “classic” SCTs used a large easy to grip declination lock knob with a large engagement thread.  Tightening the declination lock was effortless and failures were unheard of.  The “obvious” fix to weaker declination locking was to add a similar larger knob.  But Meade’s smaller “stylized” knob utilizes a smaller engagement screw threaded into an aluminum female thread.  Any machinist knows to NEVER insert a steel adjustment bolt into aluminum, as steel abrades aluminum – causing the aluminum threads to wear out quickly.  The declination lock female thread is not only aluminum, but it’s thin – there are usually only 3 full threads there to start with.  The excessive force required to clamp the wet clutch plates leads to premature failure of the aluminum thread.  Since a larger knob would result in larger forces and an even more accelerated thread wear, we spent a bit more time with the engineering and developed this easy clutch modification.  EZ Clutch forces are light and will prolong the life of this critical aluminum thread indefinitely. 

Sorry, but if your declination lock has already failed you need to talk to Meade or a machine shop as the damage is already done.