Troubleshooting a Hayward navigator....

For the first couple seasons our Navigator worked perfectly. That was 3 seasons ago, and its been slowly not working as nice every year. Now its just downright frustrating. Seems to be returning to the same basic spot on the pool, so it never gets the whole pool done. Doesnt even really get half of the pool done unless Im there to give it a kick in the pants to move around.

Ive torn the whole thing apart, and I notice there is *some* (very little, maybe 1/8") play in the "pod test" (grab the left and right pods at the same time, and twist them.....all movement should be transferred directly to the turbine, but I get 1/8" before that happens).

Could this play be messing up the whole works? It looks like the fix is new A-frames, but Im not sure.

Could there be other things wrong too? Hayward doesnt really explain how to troubleshoot other parts (like gearbox, etc). Wanted an idea of parts cost, because adding up some of the more expensive parts are close enough to just buying a new cleaner.

Thanks in advance.

-Chris

Does it alternate it's turns or only turn one direction? I replaced the tranny in mine since it started only turning right and missing a large portion of the pool.

The Leslie's pool store in my area does good work with them. They don't even charge labor, just parts ( overpriced parts ;) ) ..