ATM Help w/ Older Meade Clock Drive

[Matt & Belinda Tarlach <tarlach@earthlink.net>]

Greetings!

The following questions are more about telescope maintenance
than telescope making, but since there is a wide variety of
expertise in this group I thought it might be a good place
to ask.  If I can get this mounting to work right, I plan to
build a new 8" OTA to sit oatop it, so there is an ATM
connection!

I recently acquired an early '80s vintage Meade newtonian, a
6" f8 on a pedestal EQ mount.  The previous owner installed
an on/off switch for the AC clock drive, and a new drive
motor.  Everything seems to work fine, with one problem: 
the drive sometimes will not engage and turn the RA axis. 
The motor continues to run; I can hear it.  The telescope is
well balanced, and there are no clamps to lock or release. 
When the drive does engage it seems to be very accurate (as
far as these basic drives go), holding Jupiter well within a
high power field for close to an hour a few nights ago.

I suspected the problem was in the drive clutch, and
dismantled it to see what was going on inside.  The clutch
consists of two large nylon ring washers, on either side of
the drive gear, with two polished aluminum plates acting as
the bread of the sandwich (I'll call these the "RA plates"
since thew are fixed and rotate with the RA axis).  So the
arrangement is RA plate - washer - drive gear - washer - RA
plate.  The clutch mechanism is held together by three
machine screws fitted with lock washers, which I assume are
what I should
tighten or loosen to control tension.

When I slewed the telescope while watching the drive
mechanism, the washers slipped on both sides - that is, both
the washer/drive gear surface and washer/RA plate surfaces
slipped.  When I disassembled the drive and clutch, I
noticed that there was a fair amount of dry lubricant on all
of
the washer surfaces - graphite, perhaps.  There was little
or no lubricant on the teeth of the RA drive gear or the
worm.  

I wiped most of the lubricant off the washers and plates and
reassembled the clutch, tightening the tension until the
"stiction" in the RA motion seemed right.  I noticed that
now when I slew the telescope, only the washer/RA plate
surface slips, while the washer/drive gear surface holds. 
Not sure if that's an improvement, or merely indicates
uneven lubrication.

I'm going to try it tonight to see if it works better, but
perhaps someone with experience with these scopes can answer
some questions:

1)  Did I do a bad thing by cleaning the lubricant off the
clutch washers?  I am used to dobsonians, which don't
require lubrication.  Will the washers or some other part of
the system be damaged by being run dry?

2)  If the clutch washers should be lubricated, what
substance should be used?  Should all surfaces be "oiled",
or only certain ones?

3)  Should the worm and RA drive gear teeth be lubricated,
and again, with what type of substance?

Thanks in advance for your assistance!

-- 
Matt Tarlach
Carmichael, California
tarlach@earthlink.net