Michael, as far as I understand he meant that the stepper is still connected and spinning when he spins the screw by hand. So we are not much further... It's probably just a tight fitting coupler...
OK…another idea. Tighten the coupler again. Now take the four screws out that hold the ball nut (the “loose ones”…just remember roughly how tight, or better, “loose” they were…it’s not overly critical). Now you can move the platform up and down freely without the nut. This way we can see if it comes from the linear bearings… If it’s not the bearings then you can spin the nut around the (fixed) screw by hand and see if the noise comes from the nut. As a last test you can tape the nut to the screw with some scotch tape so that it spins with the screw…now jog the z axis…if it then makes the noise then we know it’s from the coupler, motor, or the bearing blocks.
Yes, that's what I think is happening, the coupler is tight and still spun as I spun the axis.
These next steps sound like brain surgery haha, but whatever it takes to make my printer normal again.
Unfortunately, I'll be gone for the weekend and won't be able to do surgery on the printer until Monday night. Then I'll get right on it.
Thanks again to you and Michael
