C550 with brownish strip at top and bottom of page p-21 code

**lucky13** · 06-07-2010

the strips are the test strips being written on the belt right inline with with the front and rear color registration sensors top strip is cyan and yellow over lapped bottom is black and magenta overlapped .they are constantly being written over and over ,pulled out transferbelt and is spotless except for two bands going all the way around belt every copy or print job has these strips . also the high tones are washed out and giving a p-21 and no C codes ,also when printing and copying machine has a very loud high pitch whine and gets louder at the end of copy process . tested all iu's every color has stripes through them .transfer belt was changed out a few days earlier,customer still had the old one i swapped it same thing. had a printer controll board tried that .tried new firmware. i have an MFP board comming tommarrow and try that . im going to get some samples scanned in later to day .thanks for reading

**tech51** · 06-07-2010

Had this fault a few times now. Check the drive motor and gear assembly that drives the transfer belt cleaner brush. I would bet that the gears have stripped or the worm gear on the end of the motor is worn. There are modified parts available to prevent it happening again.

**Albonline** · 06-07-2010

Originally Posted by tech51

Had this fault a few times now. Check the drive motor and gear assembly that drives the transfer belt cleaner brush. I would bet that the gears have stripped or the worm gear on the end of the motor is worn. There are modified parts available to prevent it happening again.

yes, this sounds like the same thing ive seen a few times. it seems to happen on tbelts that have been fused 2 or three times.

**Stirton.M** · 06-08-2010

I agree with the previous two replies, might be a cleaning brush issue.

Also, check in tech rep to ensure that belt cleaning is turned on. It can also help to step up the positive and negative cleaning bias levels a notch or two.

And though rare on this model, look to ensure your metal contacts for bias are making full contact to the HV unit.

It could also mean HV is failing. Though I have my doubts.

**lucky13** · 06-08-2010

here are the samples ,it seems the belt is getting cleaned after every print or copy job no ghosting or print residue. just that the strips are being layed down as its cleaning .did not have a chance to put in printer controll board today im going to look at those drive gears also thanks guys.

**Albonline** · 06-08-2010

looking at the scans , It seems to be the cleaning system is working, think you my need the mfp board,

**tech51** · 06-08-2010

Originally Posted by lucky13

here are the samples ,it seems the belt is getting cleaned after every print or copy job no ghosting or print residue. just that the strips are being layed down as its cleaning .did not have a chance to put in printer controll board today im going to look at those drive gears also thanks guys.

Having seen your scans I`m even more convinced its the gears. Its the noise that gives it away, as it cleans at the end of the copy cycle it gives out a high pitched whine that varies in pitch as the cleaner drive speeds up and slows down again. Dont know why the stripes appear like this but every one ive had has had stripes like this. As I said the gears have been modified to prevent this fault, Our favourite theory is that if the black IU fails (as they do from time to time) developer gets carried via the transfer belt to these gears ans accelerates the wear on them. We now remove the transfer belt and remove any dev residue if a black IU has failed. One other thing, I did have one where the gears where ok but the drive motor gear had worn, make sure you chek that too. Let us know how you get on. Cheers...

**lucky13** · 06-09-2010

tech51 you were dead on checked thoes gears and the 55t gear was worne down in several places and it was the old style assembely i have all the new style parts comming over night thanks again . just strange i have never ran in to that before ,i must have 300 this type machines in our area never seen it ill post the bullietin for others

**Stirton.M** · 06-09-2010

Cool. Cannot say I have ever encountered this problem as described in teh TSB, but thanks for the information just the same....

**RRodgers** · 06-09-2010

I remember back in the 8031 days I would have to replace a t belt because someone would put the waster toner box in wrong and it would back up and break the auger in the t belt cleaning station. So, be sure to check the waste box and make sure that it's going in correctly and that they little tube that leads to it is going in right.