I think I broke my printer...

Printer: Prusa i3 "6inch" from MakerFarm.com
To make this short, basically I've messed something up by pressing down on my print head while it was printing. Now I'm having problems. The the X carriage still moves, but with more friction and skipped steps during printing.

I think I've messed up my bearings on that axis.

1. Would replacing my LM12UU linear bearings fix the problem?
2. Is this $2.00 per bearing a decent price for them? [www.makerfarm.com]

Thanks for any and all help.

I bet you did not press hard enough to brake bearings or bend rods if printer was printing and X was moving.
I would suggest untightening X axis and extruder mounting and tightening everything back together afterwards.

I agree, you would probably break everything else before the bearing, they are probably good for a few hundred pounds of force.

When I do something stupid with my printer (like lower the head while something is on the platform) parts come loose, belts slip, and anything plastic that is press fit pops out.

Ah, well that's good news I suppose. I don't think I was putting that much force on it. I was pushing the filament into the extruder, which was probably a bad idea.

Now that I've taken the belt off, it seems like the increased friction has disapeared. It occurs to me that maybe I set my belt up wrong after it came loose.

Thanks for the help.

I use a Budaschnozzle and I press (pretty hard) on the filament into the extruder to fix any jams, always works like a charm unless the filament contained contaminate larger than the nozzle or air pockets. I probably put 10lbs of force with no ill effects to the bearings, it's enough force to momentarily bend the guide rods (but no permanently).

And it prints again!

The real culprit turned out to be the setscrew being too loose. While getting that taken care of I did pull the printer apart, and now it runs a little better.