A little lubrication is  also in order
A drop of light oil on the axle bearings  way oil or a light coat of grease on the guide rods. .
There has been lot of discussion on what lube is best.
Lubricate early and often keep the rods clean and lube application light.
Tin

this!

and if you are in a "dusty" environment (i live on a dirt road - the dust is terrible!) clean and re-lube very often! pretty much a weekly exercise for me in the summer, not quite as bad in colder weather when windows are closed.

and yes, those bushings can be upgraded to bearings, but may require a little sanding of the rod to fit correctly

TangentDelta wrote:

heartless wrote:

hate to say it, but getting a response out of SD right now may be iffy.

the fan is needed on the stock set up to keep the motor cool - if it gets too hot it will start skipping steps causing problems during prints.

Make sure all wiring connections are tight and making good contact & verify that it is getting power.

If the fan is indeed dead, find a replacement for it asap - any 12v 40mm fan will work. in a pinch, if you have the fan on the back of the case (upper right corner), you can use that one as it is not a necessity. fan on the motor is.

Yeah, checking the connections was one of the first things I tried. Unfortunately the fan is well and truly dead, so I'll have to see if I have a random 40mm fan laying around or not. Worse case scenario, I have to buy a fan.

Edit: Just pulled out the fan. One of the leads soldered to the fan's motor had fallen off, taking the pad underneath with it. I was able to replace it with a random fan I had laying around and it works perfectly!

Good job!
Now go print some better parts for your printer! LOL
(stock printed parts are notoriously weak)

Well, I still need to get the belts adjusted (something I'm having a hard time doing) before I can start printing. There seems to be a very fine line between the belt slipping and the motor grinding. Also, how impotent is it that the idler are straight?

heartless wrote:

hate to say it, but getting a response out of SD right now may be iffy.

the fan is needed on the stock set up to keep the motor cool - if it gets too hot it will start skipping steps causing problems during prints.

Make sure all wiring connections are tight and making good contact & verify that it is getting power.

If the fan is indeed dead, find a replacement for it asap - any 12v 40mm fan will work. in a pinch, if you have the fan on the back of the case (upper right corner), you can use that one as it is not a necessity. fan on the motor is.

Yeah, checking the connections was one of the first things I tried. Unfortunately the fan is well and truly dead, so I'll have to see if I have a random 40mm fan laying around or not. Worse case scenario, I have to buy a fan.

Edit: Just pulled out the fan. One of the leads soldered to the fan's motor had fallen off, taking the pad underneath with it. I was able to replace it with a random fan I had laying around and it works perfectly!

Good job!
Now go print some better parts for your printer! LOL
(stock printed parts are notoriously weak)

hate to say it, but getting a response out of SD right now may be iffy.

the fan is needed on the stock set up to keep the motor cool - if it gets too hot it will start skipping steps causing problems during prints.

Make sure all wiring connections are tight and making good contact & verify that it is getting power.

If the fan is indeed dead, find a replacement for it asap - any 12v 40mm fan will work. in a pinch, if you have the fan on the back of the case (upper right corner), you can use that one as it is not a necessity. fan on the motor is.

Yeah, checking the connections was one of the first things I tried. Unfortunately the fan is well and truly dead, so I'll have to see if I have a random 40mm fan laying around or not. Worse case scenario, I have to buy a fan.

Edit: Just pulled out the fan. One of the leads soldered to the fan's motor had fallen off, taking the pad underneath with it. I was able to replace it with a random fan I had laying around and it works perfectly!

the fan is needed on the stock set up to keep the motor cool - if it gets too hot it will start skipping steps causing problems during prints.

Make sure all wiring connections are tight and making good contact & verify that it is getting power.

If the fan is indeed dead, find a replacement for it asap - any 12v 40mm fan will work. in a pinch, if you have the fan on the back of the case (upper right corner), you can use that one as it is not a necessity. fan on the motor is.

Kind of off-topic, but the fan attached to the heatsink on the extruder motor was dead on arrival. I already emailed solidoodle support but haven't gotten a response yet. Am I fine operating the printer without that? I'm assuming it's to keep the print head from cooking the motor.

Those two "pitch" screws on the front idler are also your tension adjustment.

^^ yup.

both belts need to be reasonably the same tension as well.