1232c service

[Guest]

looking for info on ricoh 1232c have not serviced one before and need to have a look at one on friday any tips will help thanks

[cobiray]

They are rubbish. Complete garbage. Sorry for your loss.

[nmfaxman]

Keep that POS as a billable customer. Upgrade at all costs, or walk away.

[cobiray]

If you know what the problem is with it, someone here has seen it and can give you some pointers. Unfortunately this model is very problematic.

[Lots_of_Driving]

The Ricoh 1224c/1232c/3224c are not such a bad series of machines if the service has been kept on them. There are a few major areas of the machine where problems commonly happen.

Fuser: origional versions had narrow pick-off pawls that will dig into the fuser belts if the knob is rotated a lot or if it was starved for oil. Ricoh updated the fuser with wider pawls. Next there is a cleaning roller visable from the top of the fuser that gets coated with toner and leads to failures. Remove the fuser oil unit and clean this roller. Beware the oil unit is full of silicon oil so keep it level.

Photoconductor unit: The PCU is removed with 3 large screws. Several updates to this part have been made. Check it's belts for damage particularily the larger brown-ish belt. I've seen it with a tear going in it's rotational direction that sometimes gives error codes. Also if the fuser's belts get pealed you may have red rubber bits in the PCU or either of it's cleaning units.

DV Units: Again Ricoh has updated these parts a few times. Older DV units would bind up or be short-lived.

Clutches: Make yourself comfortable on the floor behind the machine as there are a bunch of clutches that can go bad. Remove a bunch of screws and swing away the controller box. In the center of the back of the machine there is a clutch pack with a couple old-style spring clutches and a couple magnetic clutches that drive the PCU and cleaning units. On the righthand side of the back of the machine you will see the 4 DV clutches in line verticaly that were also updated along with the DV units. Paper feed clutches are below the clutch pack and need occasional replacement.

That would be basicaly the main problem areas of this machine. They are fairly easy to work on once you get the layout down and even the hardest clutch replacements can be done in an hour or so with practice.

[Jomama46]

Sounds like you've seen your fair share, lots-of driving.
In my oponion it is a cheap pc of crap but that aside, I agree that with PROPER maintenance it will give good service. No special papers, dont expect 4 drum quality, PMs on time. I have probably a dozen in the field and have a major issue with all of them at one time or another. But all were resolved and I learned something from each to apply to the others.
As a matter of fact, I am rebuilding one in the shop right now. Really just updating all the parts and full PMing. ($1500)

[cobiray]

I'm gonna have to respectfully disagree with you lots; they are such bad machines. I've got only a few left in the field, but I can't wait until they go. I want to hit them with a snow shovel.

You also should know about replacing the entire drive plate on the back when you get the jittery color copies or the blurry third of the page. Or I hear you can pull the drive plate out, clean and lube all the shafts and bushings and put it back in and hope it goes away.

Even with the new PCU's and mods I still get the torn transfer belt on the edge.

[iMind]

I'm gonna have to respectfully disagree with you lots; they are such bad machines. I've got only a few left in the field, but I can't wait until they go. I want to hit them with a snow shovel.

You also should know about replacing the entire drive plate on the back when you get the jittery color copies or the blurry third of the page. Or I hear you can pull the drive plate out, clean and lube all the shafts and bushings and put it back in and hope it goes away.

Even with the new PCU's and mods I still get the torn transfer belt on the edge.

[Mess]

here is little piece of info about this model that should tell you something. Ricoh canada went to all their customers with this model and upgraded them to different model ricoh's

[Jomama46]

Lesson: DO NOT sell it on a cost per copy program.

[Cipher]

Look at it this way, these machines keep us techs in a job LOL.
It has to be said the 3224c based on the same engine isn't as problematic as the earlier 1224c/1232c models.

But the sooner the saleman has the customer replace them the better off everyone concerned is.

[Steve Perks]

It's a bad sign when you go to a multivendor tech forum and see a thread entitled...'Man - I hate this model' and you know before you open the thread which machine it is going to be.

Do anything less than thorough on schedule PM's and you'll have your hands full.

I've never had to changes clutches at the rate I have had to on this model.

Beware: if you have to take the main board out to access drives, be careful when re-inserting the plugs.

On earlier versions at least, the plugs/looms aren't labelled and there are a number of identically sized plugs which will easily reach to the wrong sockets.

A gas mask is an essential part of the toolkit to deal with the resulting smoke cloud.

Been there, done it, got the t-shirt

[iMind]

OK Steve, easy to talk like that but what if it were you going to one of these things with no experience at all. this is how this thread started."Looking for info on ricoh 1232c have not serviced one before" this machine is so problematic,
no one said you´ll always have to change clutches. I was just joking with him, could not had better luck, so I´m certain his overcome this problem, otherwise he´d be back asking more questions, so I think the problem solved or someone with more experience went to the site... No hard feelings were not all the same, besides all this playing around, we here to Help.

[Steve Perks]

Fair point, I did lose sight of the origin of the thread.

I think 'Lots of Driving' pretty well covered all the bases.

I think the point about the board wiring is a valid one though as it is so easy to do if you are inexperienced on the product as I was when I blew my first one up and forewarned is forearmed.

I would also stress paying attention to the fuser eg; keep the cleaning and oils supply rollers clean.
I strip the fuser down every call on these.

[Jomama46]

Fair point, I did lose sight of the origin of the thread.

Easy enough mistake. When a call comes in to our office on one of these, I say "Oh shxx. what now.

On the other hand when I see a board thread on this dog, I say "hot damn, more input!"