Taz 5 Extruder Arm crooked

Hey all,

I’ve had my Taz 5 for a while and have been loving it. I’ve printed so much with it. Several droids, tons of terrain for games etc.
Last night, I go down to see if my latest print was done… and nothing printed.
I clean the bed, pre heat the extruder to make sure it’s not clogged. Restart the print… so the extruder goes back to home… when I noticed that the filament had snapped in the tube.
I cancel the print and through the LCD screen, go to raise it in the Z axis.

I look and all of a sudden the left side is higher than the right. Now it won’t move.
I’m guessing one of the stepper motors died… or got snagged or something and now because of the uneven bars everything is stuck.

Other than dismantling it, is there a way of turning one of the rods, to try and level it? Do I have to tear it apart?

I’ll post pics when I get home tonight

It sounds like you have some Z-binding going on and we have step by step direction located here that goes over leveling the x-axis. https://ohai.lulzbot.com/project/leveling-x-axis/maintenance-repairs/

This is for a Taz 6, however it will work for the Taz 5 as well as the Mini.

A sudden shift in height where one end of the x axis is higher than the other is often due to a failed or loose z motor coupling. To fix it, first check for broken couplings and tighten all 4 setscrews. Once you know they are good, then you can unplug the motor, manually re level the axis, and go from there. From the bottom of the z lead screw nuts to the top of the lower z lead screw bearing should be the same on both sides.

Thanks, I’ve tried to go through this, but on step 4, if I try to manually turn it, it doesn’t want to move at all. I was thinking of removing the set screws so I could take one of the stepper motors out… and be able to free turn the rod, but it almost seems like they’re stuck in there with weldon or something.

Are the set screws stuck in there? they don’t want to budge, at least not with the AlanKeys that came with it… almost like they’re put in there with WeldOn or Locktite.

Figured it out…

Looks like there was filament/gunk stuck on the right threaded rod.
I unscrewed the X rods from the threaded part and Auto Homed it… then I was abled to lower the x rods a bit and saw filament in the threads.
and once not attached, I was able to manually move the coupler.

So, cleaned everything up, going to add some new grease on there… recalibrate and run a test print.

Thanks everyone