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The couplings shouldn't wear much, unless something it worrying them too much.
I'd be looking for one or the other shaft run-outs, possibly something bent.
And I'd want a spare coupler if I was you.


And Amen about shipping costs!

What do you think made it go bonkers?

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I spent ~42 years in the heavy side of the Industrial Electrical field. Every machine I worked with where shaft to shaft coupling was done, flexible couplings where used.
Even with very heavy machinery, roller chain coupler's were used (Multiple hundreds of Horsepower applications) And Machinists aligned these.
Couplers allow for ease of disassembly, but they also take up things like flexing due to torque loads, temperature variations and stress that could shorten the drive's life.
Often, it is just better to let things run the way they were engineered, and have been proven over countless hours of use.

When you solid couple something, the stresses must be compensated for elsewhere. Like breaking things. Or rubber mounted feet.

But, if you would like to reinvent the wheel, .

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No.
But if you take one to a Lowe's, or a Home Depot, they usually have a thread matching card or device and you can >carefully< try your screw and find the right thread and pitch.
Ask for help if you need to, but remember, the help you get may know less than you do and might screw up your screw.
And that you don't wanna do.

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Thank You Brian!
Not visual at all, really. I got into this sport to do imaging of Nebula, specifically.
So although coming at it from a budget point of view, I bought my initial gear with Astrophotography as my first aim. I do have a "beginners set" of eyepieces, two Barlow's, and viewed Saturn and it's rings my first summer. Spectacular, BTW.
I'm in Saugus, but originally grew up in Encino. So I sometimes refer to myself as "The Encino Man" ;^) I took a very long road to land here in Saugus, CA.

I'll have to learn about Gemini, and how the Losmandy starts up, connects, and gets running. I use to mount my telescope and connect my cables (all bundled), then power up, open my programs (PHD2, Infinity, AFF2 focuser, NexRemote (virtual hand controller), and Stellarium). Usually Stellarium connected automatically through the Celestron Virtual remote.
I suspect Stellarium will just need to connect through the ASCOM or Gemini 2. (Not too sure about the pathways my Windows computer takes, but I do get there. LOL)
I'm betting Scott Losmandy has these things all figured out being as he has been at this near forever.

I kind of got lost mining down about the Gemini 2 on the Losmandy site. Looks to be very straight forward and very well explained. Just have to do a step-by-step for initial start (Cold Start). I was going to ask about cold start, warm start, but I think I have that figured out now. Thanks to you mentioning it, and my curiosity and trying to find the answer myself.
I'll be pouring over those and taking notes so I can avoid my usual trial and error, error, error....
Thanks Brian!

A coupling program called connects my two computers so I can run everything outside, from inside, as if I was sitting at that station. Once I got it all working, it's been great!
And I have a Micro USB card mounted in an auxiliary slot that I store my imaging to. That works great because I can pop the card out, mount it to an adapter and put it in a slot of my tower computer to process.

Oh no, I plan to delete anything about Celestron from my Mount Computer, I refer to it as my Baby Dell. I think I might wait until the new GM811G is here and working. Or hopefully, somebody runs through a quick set-up with me at Losmandy and I bring it home working.
My indoor tower is also a Dell. In the 1990's I took to building my own computers. But in the wee-side of the 2000's I just started buying ready-made computers when needed. So far, been very happy with Dell Brand boxes-of-rocks.
I hope to Flush Celestron from the bathroom of my heart. ;^) I'm expecting the Losmandy to be my "forever mount".

I did try SGP back when it was new, but found it quite resistant to understanding. So it got flushed.
I don't know anything about NINA, yet, but I'm going looking for it. I'm not so much into complete night automation as of yet. I guess like my typing, I'm a visual, hunt and pecker sort of object imager. Often as I was doing my old alignment I would look in Stellarium for nearby objects at the last star, then slew to them for a session. Usually setting up PHD2 at that time, and dialing in my focus. I'd leave the mount fully operational and collecting images. Then retire inside and connect with Vnc to continue. After the first target was as much as I desired, I'd find another object and continue.
In fact, I'd be imaging with the mount computer displayed on one display, and browsing around in Stellarium for my next victim.

I still need to learn plate solving. I was miserable when I attempted it before. And Multiple Target Scheduling didn't work for me either. But I am willing to try and try again. As long as I can get things working initially.

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Thank You Paul. I'm not a Raspberry pie user, but appreciate your reply. Thanks!

Thank You for the short list, Chip.
Looks like the only thing for me to add is the Gemini ASCOM driver (maybe. It may already be onboard)
All the rest I have and have been using. Except the ASCOM controller.
I would imagine the ASCOM handset (virtual) will just need getting use to for me. But shouldn't be any problem.
This shift to a Losmandy Mount may be much smoother than I imagined.