Hi All,
Wondering if anyone else has had their X and Y axis belt tensioner bearings fail ?
I was hunting down a noisy bearing sound that I was convinced was the linear bearings on the Y axis bed - but after replacing those and re-lubing the problem didn’t really change.
After some more testing I realised the noise was coming from the belt tensioner pulley’s - the Y axis one right at the front of the printer was worst, but the X axis one on the right hand side was also noisy.
I removed them to check them and discovered the X axis belt tensioner bearing (which is a miniature sealed ball bearing) is completely seized up and it is not possible to turn between the inner and outer…
So the belt is turning the outside of the pulley and this is forcing the inner part of the bearing to turn on the screw instead of the bearing turning. This is wearing the plastic shoulder on the bracket that holds the pulley away and is also the cause of the squeaking noise.
The Y axis belt tensioner bearing is not completely seized but it is very stiff and it too is quite noisy now.
I’ve been back and forth with 3DJake technical support (as I bought the printer from them) and they have been passing messages back and forth to Sovol and after a few weeks it looks like Sovol might finally send me some replacement tensioner spools and brackets, although I am still waiting at the moment.
The bearing is a press fit into the plastic spool and the plastic bracket that holds the spool has also been damaged as a result of the bearings seizing so the whole tensioner assembly needs replacing.
Just thought I’d throw that out there if you’re having noises you can’t track down - pop your belt tensioners out, remove the screw and the pulley and see if the bearings are seized!