The central bearing adjustment carried on at the end of May was prompted by a falling loading on the wheels as determined by the strain gauge we have in place. Ultimately it seemed that wheel 4 actually lifted off the track causing characteristic spikes to appear in the track model profile.

Recent Performance
Since the central bearing adjustment the strain gauge data has been monitored closely. Initially the readings remained steady however the results from July 1st showed a drop in the loading for all the wheels. This prompted the scheduling of another central bearing adjustment and nightly monitoring of the situation. Over the holiday weekend (4th July) all the loading seemed to recover initially however wheels 1 and 4 (both on the same side of the dish) have subsequently lightened once again.

The closely spaced reading bracketing the 4th July were specialised cw inclinometry runs with the sole purpose of gathering strain gauge data. Data was collected only for those azimuths where a wheel passes over the fixed strain gauge.

20090707 - Central Bearing Adjustment
A central bearing adjustment was carried out on 7th July. In addition balance weights were added to the front left drive wheel in an attempt to increase the loading on wheel 4.
The latest strain gauge data shows the results of this adjustment (click here)