€50 HP Designjet T2500 issues

[Kazzy]

Got myself a used T2500 for €50, she's got 26k total meters printed, sat for a year, has missing back covers for the psu and motors (motors were replace) and generally has a few missing s rews for the plastic covers. I managed to solve the head issue by cleaning the contacts and letting the ehsd stay on an IPA covered towel, service station had 2L of old ink, presumably was never changed and jsut was rested. She's happy with the head now but now another problem is paper loading. It will start loading and jam itself in the top left area, usually tearing a piece of the roll off and jamming or tearing a piece, leaving it and then telling me load again. I have worked on HPs before but not the never ones. She came with 2 rolls of Bright white I jet HP brand and 4 cartridges so I can't really complain, the scanner works too. Below are the pics of how the situation looks, belive she throws an 86:11 when it jams up. Leaves a trace on the paper too.

On another note, are the head assemblies this wonky on those models?, I can move the whole carriage about 3 mil up and down. I also noted something feels like should lock in it? There is a sound like something drops down when ti's moved up, not everytime unfortunately. She's got old ink everywhere and it could also be a cause too. Once it's down it's about 15 mil from the bottom of the rod, she's at 18 mil when it's pulled up. That slop and the sound of something dropping down which I already mentioned makes me wonder if the head assembly should be replaced. She's got old ink all over the elft side too. Ain't looking, just from use from what I can tell, gave it a bit of a clean.

[Kazzy]

I have a small update, after going through multiple error codes about the plate and stacker motors I have a new problem, loud grinding noise like some gear is grinding onto another from the left side. She manages to suck the paper in correctly but then the nose starts. Is there any specific calibration required for the service station assembly? I can't seem to find anything in the service manual. The noise starts once the printhead gets to the right side of the machine.

[Kiran Otter]

You likely have something jammed underneath the starwheel assembly. It's just two screws to remove it. The wheels ride on springs and they get mangled sometimes when there's a paper jam. If you find any broken or bent, just remove them. Missing a few won't usually cause a problem. The gear grinding noise you hear may be the starwheel motor. You can test it in the diagnostics.

Yes there is play in the carriage, that's normal. Look up the PRS actuator, it shifts the carriage height up and down. It will cycle this on startup.

Kiran

[Kazzy]

You likely have something jammed underneath the starwheel assembly. It's just two screws to remove it. The wheels ride on springs and they get mangled sometimes when there's a paper jam. If you find any broken or bent, just remove them. Missing a few won't usually cause a problem. The gear grinding noise you hear may be the starwheel motor. You can test it in the diagnostics.

Yes there is play in the carriage, that's normal. Look up the PRS actuator, it shifts the carriage height up and down. It will cycle this on startup.

Kiran

Since a few days past and I forgot to update, I found out, encoder has damage, encoder disc was incorrectly placed too and the printhead replacement throws the 86:01 again.
I have ordered a new encoder strip and will update if things change. I had to adjust the screw to get the disk properly like HP says. 20241224_230828.jpg Screenshot_20241225-204332_Video Player.jpg Screenshot_20241225-223056_Video Player.jpg Screenshot_20241225-223056_Video Player.jpg image widge