I have been experiencing the same couple of issues with my printer recently: a grinding Z motor, slanted prints, and trouble grabbing my filament with the hobbed bolt.
After multiple hours of experimenting with the stepper current, re-leveling my print bed and X axis, and completely reassembling my Z axis, I discovered the culprit for the slanted prints. My Y axis pulley was rubbing against the face of my stepper motor, causing it to progressively miss steps. In addition, my motor was not secured tightly to the motor mount, allowing it to move around. Immediately, I noticed significantly straighter prints.
The grinding in my z steppers was due to the rod couplers used to connect the motors to the 5/16" threaded rods used as lead screws. I had tightened my motors to the frame, and used an unforgiving coupler, which essentially guaranteed that my rods were not coaxial with the motor shaft. After removing the screws, my motors sit loosely in their holders and I have yet to hear another grinding sound in 2 weeks.
The filament issue is mostly due to laziness on my part. I need to find metric hardware, but it is expensive and hard to find. It works consistently enough to be a small annoyance instead of a big deal. Print quality is usually excellent, and the other fastener would only make loading new filament easier.
I ordered a GT2 belt and pulley set to replace the T5's on my X and Y axis. The print quality seems to have improved a bit, and I am worried less about skipping. Following some advice I stumbled across online, I twisted the X belt 180 degrees so that the smooth portion of the belt runs on the idler instead of the teeth. This should help to remove any artifacts in the X direction of my prints.
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