Y-axis randomly getting stuck. Ideas?

Hi all,
It has been a while since I last had any issues with my printer, but it looks like it isn't done fighting me yet. While removing a print that was stuck extremely well to the print bed, I accidentally put more pressure on the print bed than I probably should have. Now, instead of the print bed moving easily when I push/or pull it with very light pressure, like it did before, it has a LOT of resistance to being moved manually, though it still moves normally when printing. While removing a test print to see if the bed's resistance would cause any issues, I ended up moving the bed manually, and it made a noise like the belt was slipping over the pulley on the motor. However, when I did it again while watching the pulleys underneath the bed, everything looked normal, with no obvious explanation for the resistance and noise. further compounding the issue, the resistance will sometimes randomly disappear, which it did several times while I was trying to determine the source of the problem.

It still seems to be printing okay, but I'm really worried about the strange behavior of the y-axis. Does anyone know what could be causing this?
Thanks in advance.

 

Take your bed off and inspect the rails.

While you're there, make sure your bolts are tight and your y gear set screws are also tight.

Take a pic and post it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

OK, I'll try to do that tomorrow. How do I get the belt into/out of the pulleys? Do I just stretch it a little, or do I need to disconnect it from the bed? Thanks!

EDIT: turns out the resistance going on and off isn't as random as I thought. The bed moves easily when the printer is turned off and disconnected, but as soon as I move the print bed with the software controls the resistance reappears. Then the bed only moves easily again after the printer is turned off. So it must be a motor issue, but why would it just now start doing this?

 

If the motors enabled it'll be very difficult to move the carriage. Turning off the steppers should let you move the axis freely.

 

OK, thanks! I can't figure out why it never did this before, but it's printing fine so I guess it isn't a problem.