Winegard Question

[bertoman]

Hello Brian and Stan !

Brian as always thanks for the information! Any special grease that you would recommend? .... think I saw someone in a forum mention greases.. but did not write it down . will check again . Also I have the motor off the actuator for the moment .. I have not played around with the acutuator yet. Do I need to remove it completely from the mount to clean and grease it ?

Stan thank you for your thoughts and input there ! Yes I am really enjoying the journey with everything.. can't believe it took me so long to get myself working on it ! I am though taking the time to try and learn and do things right.. I have about a 200ft run for the cables to the house.. I also think I may need to work on getting the dish plumbed again as my first check with bad tools looks like it might be off just a bit.. The people in the forum have been good and offered a lot of great advise and am sure it will all pan out in the end .. ;-) which brings me to another question .. I was reading in one of the forums about someone who had put their Gbox out by the dish.. In the middle of my run there is a garage.... would it be a smart idea or a bad idea to maybe put the Gbox in the garage ( this would only be maybe a 75ft run ) and then have the Gbox run to the house . This would make the coaxial run shorter so to speak and the power/sensor wire run to the sat shorter but would it be a bad idea to have the Gbox out in the garage ? So many questions to answer.. hahahahah glad all of you are here !

Hope everybody is well !

 

[stanleyjohn]

My guess for having the g-box near the dish would be for calibration reasons.Once you have all hooked up its going to be a good idea to have the g-box and receiver within line of site of the dish.When you get to the stage of alignment of the dish to set up your true south satellite and checking the arc to see that the dish follows the satellites probably when moving the dish with the g-box.When all is done and you know your hitting all the satellites that you can then i would place the g-box near your receiver where ever you plan to watch it in your home.

 

[SatelliteAV]

I am sure you will receive a dozen different suggestions for grease, but I always used a good quality high temperature synthetic water resistant lithium based grease. Natural greases will sometimes trap water and brake down in the weather extremes.

There are several guides on the forum for breaking down an actuator to rebuild or grease. I always would visually inspect before running and blow out the motor and gears. Lightly grease the gears, remove the rubber water/ dust boot and slowly extend the actuator to nearly the end. Inspect the tube for pits and corrosion. If present, use a fine grade steel wool to remove corrosion then wipe down several times with a clean tack cloth. Apply a light layer of grease to the tube and the screw (if that type), then retract/extend several cycles. Inspect for additional rust or corrosion that may have been knocked loose and remove, wipe down the tube (and the screw), apply another thin layer of grease a retract/extend several more cycles. If the tube is clean, reinstall the boot and close up the motor housing. Make sure that the drain holes are located at the lowest point of the housing to allow condensation and rain to escape.

 

[bertoman]

Had some time to look into taking the actuator apart to check... sorry I did not take pictures while taking it apart ... there is a small bushing at the end once removed this allows the threaded rod to come out but not all the way as there appears (see picture) another nut holding the other end in place.. on the rod there is a ball bearing unit..

I do not have anything to remove the inner nut and am wondering if that is really needed .. everything looks in good shape.. there does not appear to be any rust on the rod .. when I first started taking the it apart I did see how hard it was to turn by hand and was surprised how easily it came down and appeared smooth.. did not try to go the other way as I did not wish to put pressure on it in case there was some rust..

on my way to look for a socket that might fit inside to remove that nut and to pickup some grease and see if I can find a replacement ball bearing ..

any thoughts on if I can't find a socket to remove the inner nut how important that might be ?

again thanks for all the help and support !

 

[bertoman]

Just found a tube of Sta Lube lithium based grade 2 grease that I have used for the tip of my chain saw .. will look for others while out but that should work .. does mention it is great for gears and ball bearings etc..

 

[bertoman]

Well got the actuator all apart .. all I had to do was disconnect the eye connection to the dish and the unit slid out.. got it all cleaned up... could not see any rust inside or on the screw rod.. but did find a little on the camshaft part and think I have it cleaned up pretty good.. I did use the lithium grease I had as it appeared to be the same as what the hardware shop had on hand..

After putting it all back together except the motor on.. I can move the dish really easily by hand .. so I hope this will give me a time before having to replace.. Thursday hopefully I will have time to hook up motor and gbox and see how it moves....

I also picked up a new angle finder and found that the pole is still plumb ! wow I was shocked but very happy !

I have a couple of questions

1. My run is about 200ft.. about halfway is my garage... would it be better to have the gbox in the house or have it in the garage.. if I put it in the garage and run the coaxial and power lines to it then from it to the house to the receiver the runs would be cut in half almost.. the only thing is I am not sure about is having the gbox by itself in the garage a good thing or bad thing .. any opinions ? (Why I interested in doing this is I could save on long power/sensor run ).

2. If I do have to replace the actuator/motor are their opinions about what to get ? Have heard a lot about the Van Weise and have also seen the Qarl listed on Sadoun's site or are their others I have not seen or heard about ?

3. With my runs being what they are .... would 12 gauge for the power and 18 gauge for the sensor be good ?

 

[Magic Static]

Where to put the GBox? I look at it this way. GBox = motor controller for CBand dish. SG2100= Motor controller and motor for KU dish that is never close to the operator. Why not put it in the garage? If you can plug it in.

 

[Anole]

I like the slippery-as-snot Molybdenum disulfide grease, but lithium is a good second choice! - :up

On the subject of the G-box, there are two schools of thought, and the garage isn't even on the list.
- put it by the dish, and have short motor wires, but long AC power (probably not safe)
- put it by the receiver, and you can see the display and use the remote control, but long motor wires

I go with taking it to the dish for setup, then retiring to the house for normal operation.
You get a display message if the thing has a problem, and you can use the remote.
Put it in the garage, and you're totally screwed.

22 gauge wire is fine for the sensor.
Big as you can manage is necessary for the motor.
(12 gauge is probably fine, as a guess. I didn't do the math.)

 

[stanleyjohn]

I use my v-box and its remote to change satellites!so if i want lots of exersize i would keep it in the garage

 

[bertoman]

Thanks guys I think you answered the question about putting the gbox in the garage.. The only reason I thought of that was because of the distance for the run and that there is enough of the old ribbon cable to use it for that distance. .. so thanks for settling that issue for me !