Let me just say at the outset that the cartridge is full, new, and it rotates when it's supposed to. The image quality is good, and the orifice into the black developing unit is not packed to the top, like you might see if it was agitating poorly. The cartridge is not compacted, moves easily, and pours out if you open the outlet and rotate the bottle.
I had a suspicion that there was some sort of a blockage in the toner feed tube. My long handled mirror is only 16" long, so it comes up a bit short of seeing the tube. So ... lets dig in. I've already heard rumors that the job is somewhat unpleasant.
About the time I got to the toner feed tube, my customer peeks through the middle of the copier at me, and says: "This looks bad. I've never seen it this far apart before." I responded: " ... and you probably won't again."
toner add1.jpg
I was kinda surprised to see this interesting looking filter over the toner feed tube. I did a little math, and it lets only 40% of the toner into the tube. Then I looked at the other tubes, and there is no filter. It's not a filter at all really, it's a leather gasket, that's supposed to help the toner cartridge to slide into place. But the black toner cartridge caught on the edge of the gasket and split the leather into two pieces, laying a flap over the tube opening. When I untangled the flap it looked like this:
toner add2.jpg
You can see the pattern of holes matches the the layer still securely stuck on. Since the other layer was so securely attached, I thought we could do quite nicely without the filter layer, and I snipped it neatly off, which looks like this.
toner add3.jpg
If you're planning on doing this for the first time, you should plan three hours. The disconcerting part is that you have no way of confirming that this is the cause until you've go the machine stripped. Having done it, I think I could probably do two hours ... you know, cut out the head scratching part.
If you're really lucky you won't ever have to try this. =^..^=
I had a suspicion that there was some sort of a blockage in the toner feed tube. My long handled mirror is only 16" long, so it comes up a bit short of seeing the tube. So ... lets dig in. I've already heard rumors that the job is somewhat unpleasant.
About the time I got to the toner feed tube, my customer peeks through the middle of the copier at me, and says: "This looks bad. I've never seen it this far apart before." I responded: " ... and you probably won't again."
toner add1.jpg
I was kinda surprised to see this interesting looking filter over the toner feed tube. I did a little math, and it lets only 40% of the toner into the tube. Then I looked at the other tubes, and there is no filter. It's not a filter at all really, it's a leather gasket, that's supposed to help the toner cartridge to slide into place. But the black toner cartridge caught on the edge of the gasket and split the leather into two pieces, laying a flap over the tube opening. When I untangled the flap it looked like this:
toner add2.jpg
You can see the pattern of holes matches the the layer still securely stuck on. Since the other layer was so securely attached, I thought we could do quite nicely without the filter layer, and I snipped it neatly off, which looks like this.
toner add3.jpg
If you're planning on doing this for the first time, you should plan three hours. The disconcerting part is that you have no way of confirming that this is the cause until you've go the machine stripped. Having done it, I think I could probably do two hours ... you know, cut out the head scratching part.
If you're really lucky you won't ever have to try this. =^..^=
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