I haven't been able to complete this quest for 3 days now because the weapon you need to gather never spawns. I have killed the 2 grenadiers that spawn near it 5 times in a row and it never spawns. I check back and never see it. I have stood there for over an hour checking and killing the npc spawns and it never shows up. Am I missing something? The other 2 pieces were exactly where they were supposed to be, I had no problem getting those so whats up with the weapon that is supposed to spawn?

Once they fixed the (Rep) ship's log quest, I noticed that sometimes the exact location of some of the logs varies a bit. So, take a brief look around the area where the item should spawn to make sure it's not just nearby.

Also, try changing instances.

I have looked all over the spawn area, climbed on the platforms to look, even checked in the water. And this may sound like a dumb question, how do you change instances?

click on the little round map. it should show Onderon 1, onderon 2, etc. usually if you change to a PVP instance the things will spawn.

I haven't been able to complete this quest for 3 days now because the weapon you need to gather never spawns. I have killed the 2 grenadiers that spawn near it 5 times in a row and it never spawns. I check back and never see it. I have stood there for over an hour checking and killing the npc spawns and it never shows up. Am I missing something? The other 2 pieces were exactly where they were supposed to be, I had no problem getting those so whats up with the weapon that is supposed to spawn?

 

Making spawn-able items for dailies was one of the worst decisions tied to this expansion. This is the case with so many of these quests.

...how do you change instances?

Open the map (M or icon on mini-map). In lower right corner is the display of the "full" map and above that it says what instance you're in. Click on the little down-arrow and select a different instance from the list.