Tonight's Uh-Oh

I noticed this Friday night but moreso this evening because the church youth group was over for the SuperBowl and I thought this would be opportunity to sneak some science in there.

The clock drive was not tracking in any consistent way even though I had tested it before reassembly.  

Also, there were odd motions that suggested something was not properly attached.   Then, I remembered. 

The day I completed reassembly, the cord from the garage opener that disconnects the chain from the motor grabbed the top cage of the scope.  (I parked it too close to the door.)  This disconnected the chain and stopped the motor.  But I think it exerted enough upwards force to lift the scope and its base off the slightly convoluted interface to the equatorial platform.  This may something that I can fix without disassembling everything. 

Looking ujder it, I can see what happened.  The garage door hoist picked it up just enough to misplace the upper part of the platform off the various wheels that allow the motor to move it.  This should be a quick fix once a strong person comes over to help me lift it off.  I am wondering if a hoist in the garage might be useful.  Something like you would use to lift a large game animal several feeet in the air for gutting.

This hoist seems especially appropriate.  The demonstration video shows a guy using it in his garage to lift and lower his punching bag.  

I might counterbalance it to reduce lift effort.  A couple houses back, we needed a snow plow to get out in winter, so I used my knowledge of medieval cathedral building to create a 5 pound effort lift.  I put hooks in the ceiling with pullies.  Then I put cans of ammuniition one end of the rope and the blade on the other end.  The net weight duifference was 5 pounds so it was nearly effort free to lift it off the TrailBlazer's carrier and back on again later.