Roland SC545 making terrible noise - HELP!

[Active Sign]

My Roland SC545 is making a terrible noise when printing. I am thinking it might be the pulley assembly. I disconnected the the tool carriage from the drive belt/cable and moved the belt/cable by hand, it feels like a bearing went out. It doesnt move smooth at all. It is almost like the belt is running on an oblong wheel or pulley. Has anyone ever had this issue?? Belt seems to be at a decent tension and I replaced the scan motor already. Hoping to pinpoint the issue before blowing any more money on this.

 

[rjssigns]

Had a tiny screw get wedged in between the carriage and rail on mine.

 

[Ragnabrok]

There are 3 linear bearing blocks mounted on the rail, 1 for the cut tool, 2 on the print carriage. You can use 3-in-1 oil on the rail, make a small puddle and run the bearings over it, wipe off the crud it leaves behind and repeat. As long as the chain inside the bearing block is still together (it's like a chainsaw of bearings attached by plastic) it should be recoverable.

Crappy part is, should the bearing be hooped, Roland only supplies them as a set, so a new rail + 3 matched bearings. They are supplied like this for tolerance reasons i'm told.

Another, much easier diagnosis is to take the scan motor out, just a few 3 mm allen bolts holding it in. If you take the motor out, and everything moves nicely, it's clear the motor is done.

One more thing, these are cable driven, the cable could have looped over itself. Also check the gear the scan motor attaches to for missing teeth, or tooth gaps that are filled with crud. Also the pulley on the left side could have been damaged making this racket.

A video would make this easier to narrow down .