Well my family is all gone to Church Camp, and I am here basically by myself for a week, so I decided to start preparing my last Solid Birdview dish in preparation for putting it on the roof in place of my Pinnacle.
I decided to start at lubricating the top and bottom bolts on the mount. I have tried for months to figure out where the pivot points are on the Birdview but with little success. I had also thought that the top and bottom was a single long bolt that went through the mount from bottom to top.
It turns out that they are two separate bolts, or a bolt at the bottom and a threaded stud at the top.
These two items do need to be lubricated because the whole weight of the dish and mount turns on these two points. The dish and mount combo is pretty well balanced, but it still needs to turn freely.
Naturally my family took the camera with them, so I will use some old pics for identification, and an illustration that I drew for the parts.
These are the bolts in question.
Bottom Mount Bolt
Top Mount Nut
The illustrated set
We'll start with the bottom bolt because it is the easiest to do. The head on this thing is 1-13/16 big, so you probably won't have even a crescent wrench that size. I used a pipe wrench, and it came loose very easily. There is no lock washer or anything like that, the bolt tightens up into a threaded hole so there is no rust on the threads, and when it reaches the bottom of the hole, it is tight.
You can loosen the bolt and screw it out no more than a 1/4" because if you go out further, the bushing part of the bolt slips out of the hole. It isn't a big deal, but you might have trouble holding the dish in place while you screw it back in. It won't come off because there is more thread there to hold it from falling. While the bottom plate is exposed from the rectangular beam that goes through the whole mount, I sprayed that down with white lithium grease just in case there was a rub spot.
I lubed the bushing (which I tried to illustrate next to the head of the bottom bolt), with white lithium grease. Screwed it back in and just snugged it up, and the bottom bolt is done. It will last for years if done correctly. Just think how long it has already lasted.
The top one is a little more tricky.
First of all because it is a nut with a cotter pin in it. That should tell you something right away. Don't over tighten it when you put it back. That is what the cotter pin is for. To keep the nut from coming off.
Being a nut, there are exposed threads that my have rust. I used PB-Blaster and a wire wheel to clean mine, and it came right off.
Underneath the nut is a brass bushing. The only way to get the grease where it belongs is to gently pry the brass bushing up and all the way off. When you do, be aware that the dish may shift a little. It can't come off because the bottom bolt is still holding it, and the stud is still sticking up blocking it from swinging off.
Be careful taking the bushing off. If you break it, you will need to have one manufactured at a machine shop.
Once the bushing is off, wipe out the inside, and you will be able to see the inner surface on the stud, just inside the plate. Grease that surface liberally. I used white lithium grease on this one too.
Slide the bushing back into place. You will probably need a little help to line up the dish while you gently tap it back down on the stud through the hole in the plate.
Put the nut back on and snug up good to make sure the bushing is seated, and then back off one notch and put the cotter pin back.
While I am on the subject of pivot points and adjustments, Anole and I had a discussion about declination bolts a while back in another thread. I read just recently that the two bolts in question on either side of the rectangular beam tube are in fact declination adjustment bolts.
Here is a pic:
There is about a degree of adjustment in these two bolts. So if you are anywhere close to 5 degrees of declination, you can use these bolts for the adjustment instead of washers. There are 4 bolts, two on each side of the tube.
My last solid Birdview doesn't have these bolts, but my other two do have them. The design must have changed as production increased and distribution spread out over the country.
I would say that if you need to add washers at the top or the bottom between the dish and the mount for declination, you don't have the dish centered properly on the mount. The Birdviews came from the Factory with 5 degrees of declination, so if you add or subtract a degree from there, you pretty much cover the country from North to South.
I recently discovered that I need a small adjustment to my Perfed Birdview to lock a DVB-S2 signal on the far end of my arc, so as soon as I can catch a cool morning I am going to lube up the Perfed, make some adjustments to the non-pen mount, and take the washers out and adjust the declination correctly.
Hope all this helps others who own these babies.
I decided to start at lubricating the top and bottom bolts on the mount. I have tried for months to figure out where the pivot points are on the Birdview but with little success. I had also thought that the top and bottom was a single long bolt that went through the mount from bottom to top.
It turns out that they are two separate bolts, or a bolt at the bottom and a threaded stud at the top.
These two items do need to be lubricated because the whole weight of the dish and mount turns on these two points. The dish and mount combo is pretty well balanced, but it still needs to turn freely.
Naturally my family took the camera with them, so I will use some old pics for identification, and an illustration that I drew for the parts.
These are the bolts in question.
Bottom Mount Bolt
Top Mount Nut
The illustrated set
We'll start with the bottom bolt because it is the easiest to do. The head on this thing is 1-13/16 big, so you probably won't have even a crescent wrench that size. I used a pipe wrench, and it came loose very easily. There is no lock washer or anything like that, the bolt tightens up into a threaded hole so there is no rust on the threads, and when it reaches the bottom of the hole, it is tight.
You can loosen the bolt and screw it out no more than a 1/4" because if you go out further, the bushing part of the bolt slips out of the hole. It isn't a big deal, but you might have trouble holding the dish in place while you screw it back in. It won't come off because there is more thread there to hold it from falling. While the bottom plate is exposed from the rectangular beam that goes through the whole mount, I sprayed that down with white lithium grease just in case there was a rub spot.
I lubed the bushing (which I tried to illustrate next to the head of the bottom bolt), with white lithium grease. Screwed it back in and just snugged it up, and the bottom bolt is done. It will last for years if done correctly. Just think how long it has already lasted.
The top one is a little more tricky.
First of all because it is a nut with a cotter pin in it. That should tell you something right away. Don't over tighten it when you put it back. That is what the cotter pin is for. To keep the nut from coming off.
Being a nut, there are exposed threads that my have rust. I used PB-Blaster and a wire wheel to clean mine, and it came right off.
Underneath the nut is a brass bushing. The only way to get the grease where it belongs is to gently pry the brass bushing up and all the way off. When you do, be aware that the dish may shift a little. It can't come off because the bottom bolt is still holding it, and the stud is still sticking up blocking it from swinging off.
Be careful taking the bushing off. If you break it, you will need to have one manufactured at a machine shop.
Once the bushing is off, wipe out the inside, and you will be able to see the inner surface on the stud, just inside the plate. Grease that surface liberally. I used white lithium grease on this one too.
Slide the bushing back into place. You will probably need a little help to line up the dish while you gently tap it back down on the stud through the hole in the plate.
Put the nut back on and snug up good to make sure the bushing is seated, and then back off one notch and put the cotter pin back.
While I am on the subject of pivot points and adjustments, Anole and I had a discussion about declination bolts a while back in another thread. I read just recently that the two bolts in question on either side of the rectangular beam tube are in fact declination adjustment bolts.
Here is a pic:
There is about a degree of adjustment in these two bolts. So if you are anywhere close to 5 degrees of declination, you can use these bolts for the adjustment instead of washers. There are 4 bolts, two on each side of the tube.
My last solid Birdview doesn't have these bolts, but my other two do have them. The design must have changed as production increased and distribution spread out over the country.
I would say that if you need to add washers at the top or the bottom between the dish and the mount for declination, you don't have the dish centered properly on the mount. The Birdviews came from the Factory with 5 degrees of declination, so if you add or subtract a degree from there, you pretty much cover the country from North to South.
I recently discovered that I need a small adjustment to my Perfed Birdview to lock a DVB-S2 signal on the far end of my arc, so as soon as I can catch a cool morning I am going to lube up the Perfed, make some adjustments to the non-pen mount, and take the washers out and adjust the declination correctly.
Hope all this helps others who own these babies.
