Date:     Sun, 29 Nov 92 20:08:11 EST
From:     Bill Jones  <wejones@cbda7.apgea.army.mil>
To:       homesat@vm1.nodak.edu
Subject:  lubricating actuator arms

Over the past couple of years, several people, including myself, have
posted about squeaking actuator arms, complaining about how hard it is
to lubricate them, but I haven't seen anyone post a description of how
to get into the inside where the screw is.  Well I finally got the courage
to take apart my spare actuator arm to try to lubricate it.  It may not
be the same on all arms, but on my 24" Houston Tracker arm, you can take
off the motor/gearbox/pulse unit by taking  out 2 screws at that end of
the shaft, and then wiggling off the box.  This exposes the end of drive
screw assembly, but you still can't get to the threads easily without pulling
the screw out of the cylinder.  I tried to just unscrew the thing from
the other end, but this doesn't work.  It turns out that there is a
pin through the drive piece and through the screw shaft at the end
where you remove the box.  It is accessable through two holes in the 
cylinder that I thought were drainage holes.  If you punch out this pin,
the screw shaft pulls out completely, and you can lubricate it
very easily by hand.  I made a fixture by driving a nail through
a drilled hole in a 3/8" bolt that allowed me to screw the shaft in and
out with my drill (while keeping the other end from turning with a
woodworking pipe clamp).  Haven't tried it yet, but it works perfectly
on the bench.  I'm now looking for some home-made way of keeping water
out of the thing, like perhaps a motorcycle intertube.  Any ideas?

**************************

PS...After posting this, I used a 3' long plastic bag used to hold rolls
of chicken wire (ie about 6-8" tube). I cut off closed end, slipped it 
over the actuator, and secured it on each end with rubber bands. It  
seemed to work well. Actuator worked for several years without problems
after doing this.