Desperate plea: help with problematic Ricoh CL7000. Local professionals have failed!

[104HeatonRoad]

Hi there,

My apologies for being an amateur on a site for professionals, and for my first post being a plea for help! I have done some serious googling on this and your forum is the only place that looks even remotely helpful:

I'm a designer that runs a Ricoh CL7000 in a small office---it has run fantastically for the year or so I have had it and I although I bought it used I have always tried to maintain it as well as possible. It has had fresh toner, fuser oil unit, a developer, and is regularly cleaned and maintained. Today when I switched it on it made some groaning noises while starting up, so I took out the PCUs, developers and fuser unit to see if I could see any problems. The only thing I found was that one of the small, sprung plastic guide that presses against the fuser rollers was a bit out of shape, so I lined it back up. It has scored the roller it was pressed against ever so slightly, but other than that seems fine. I put everything back in place and the printer started to throw up a 'Remove misfeed in Fuser unit: B' message. There is no paper anywhere in the printer and no misfeed, but I just cannot get it past this problem. Everything seems happy but it won't startup past this. I have called a few loacl printer repair engineers and they have shyed away from dealing with it, citing that they don't deal with colour Ricohs.

Can anyone please help? I love this printer, it's important to my business that it works, and I really can't afford a new one that would achieve anything like the results I get from it. I am a techie guy and so am happy to give anything a shot that you could suggest. Please! If anyone knows of any pros that are available locally to me (I'm in Newcastle upon tyne, UK) I'd be more than happy to use their services, if not I'm desperate to give it a shot myself---anything to get me back up and running!

Many thanks in advance.
Adam

[104HeatonRoad]

Gah! I've accidentally posted this in the Copiers section. My apologies! Can the moderators remove please!

[Eric1968]

I think the part you lined up is one of the stripper pawls. Maybe while doing that, you touched the exit sensor lever in such way that the machine thinks that there is paper jammed there. The paper touches this lever when it leaves the fusing unit.

The noise can be caused by the cleaning unit on the transfer belt, or the transfer belt itself.

[ash_572]

ive done alot of work on these. shame your really far away from me.

first of all its seems like a sensor has come out of position. ther is a actuator arm on the front middle of the fuser unit which might be dislodged. also check if there is a peice of paper stuck in the connector of th fusr unit and machine end too.

[104HeatonRoad]

Ash, thanks for your responses so much. And I think you might be on to something! There was a black plastic rod running parallel to the rollers with a triangle on it that could well be the actuator you speak of. The rod had come out of it's middle clip and I had to pop it back in. I didn't think to mention this above, but it did occur to me that it might be a problem. What connection does this thing make or switch does it flick that would be sending the signal to the printer? I had a good look at it but couldn't see where it could possibly be making a switch or anything. I'd really appreciate your further response, I think we're getting somewhere! Thanks again, Adam

[104HeatonRoad]

And Eric, thanks so much for your response too. i think you're both talking about the same thing on the fuser right? And yes it sounds like it was a pawl I repaired. Do either of you have any tips on adjusting this actuator to get it to reset itself correctly?

And Eric, if I get this fixed I'll back on to you about the transfer belt. Yikes!

[Herrmann]

open the fuser door and remove the fuser assy, stay in front of the now emty fuser door and have a look at the lower right side of the metal frame...there should be a litte photointerruptor (little black plastic thing), does it stand solid upright, or maybe, it is knocked out of its position due to inclined inserting of the fuser assy? this happens sometimes, generating the paper jam error

[ash_572]

like herrmann says also check the sensor on the right with the fuser unit out into the machine. also about the actuator make sure the spring is on too just where the actuator is. the actuator should always push back up everytime u press down on it.

[mikadonovan]

The groaning noise could also be caused by the fuser (likely, since you are having other problems in that particular area). The fuser is a user replaceable item. They are rated at 100K, but you are lucky to get 50K out of them. You need a type "C' fuser unit. They run between 300 and 400 USD. You also need to check the sensor mentioned in the 2 previous posts.

[pLatik]

i have repaired recently a machine that have the symptoms that you describe, and was caused by the cleaning unit of the transfer unit. the machine trow up errors of paper jam in the fuser, and loud noises came from the machine. i change the the bad blade from the cleaning unit, and all back to normal.

[104HeatonRoad]

Wow, I'm very impressed everyone, thanks for all your responses. Okay, I think we're onto something---the little black rod I made reference to above has a pizza slice-shaped wedge at the end which is evidently responsible for controlling light through that photointerruptor. I taped the paper guide on the other end of it down and the printer went into warmup mode for the first time all day! When I look at the fuser unit in place though the little wedge does not drop naturally back to its lowest position. Should it be sprung or is it relying on gravity to hold it down? It's as if it isn't heavy enough on its own to stay in the position that gets the printer going.

And good call on the fuser---I'll keep my eye out for one. For the few seconds that the printer went into warmup the groaning was rather immense, it certainly seems to be coming from the main body of the printer. Is the transfer belt much of a job?

[104HeatonRoad]

Ah sorry I wrote that last reply before I saw a new slew of responses. PLatik, thanks for your response, is the transfer box something i could get into?

And my impeller does not seem to be sprung! Christ, now where the hell could that have gone...

[mikadonovan]

In regards to replacing the transfer as a whole unit, not so hard a job. To replace just the belt without messing something up, not something a lot of end users would want to try.

[104HeatonRoad]

Okay guys, my problem with the photointerruptor is definitely that the spring has vanished from the impeller. I can't see anywhere that it could possibly fit onto it, I have to say! But having taped the impeller up to block the sensor the printer has (noisily) gone through it's calibration process. I just looked at the counter and the printer has only done 13k sheets! So I'd definitely be looking at fixing up this fuser rather than replacing it. Anyone have any ideas?

[104HeatonRoad]

Ha! Well, it got as far as attempting to print a sheet and then stopped on an SC 471. Bugger!

[Herrmann]

seems, like your transfer unit doesent sit properly, reinstall and secure it with its screws ;)

[104HeatonRoad]

i didn't touch the transfer unit yet! Damn, maybe it's time to look for another 7000...

[104HeatonRoad]

Hi everyone,

Well, some good news. I stripped out the transfer unit, took off the transfer cleaning section from that, it was chock full of waster toner, and the sprung blade mechanism seemed to be jammed by all the toner Gave that a good clean and reassembled, and lo! the printer is now firing up without making the awful grinding sound. So good progress! The printer is still going nicely and I no longer have to work out where I can get the money to buy a new one.

But! I still have the fuser unit misfeed problem, I'm pretty sure caused by the exit impeller. I took it off the fuser unit and can't see anywhere where a spring could possibly go, but it's just ain't dropping down enough to hit that photointerruptor and when it prints a sheet is stops half way out of the fuser. Can anyone confirm whether this is a sprung mechanism?

Thanks again! You guys have been lifesavers. Adam

[teebee1234]

The spring wraps around the actuator end of the shaft (where the paper contacts). It keeps the actuator in an upright position and springs back after the trail edge of the paper passes. Look around the exit area, you might get lucky and find it. You might try and contact a local dealer and see if the may have a junk fuser laying around that can be stripped. This is the same fuser used in the 2228c/2232c/2238c copier versions.
Here is the part number for the lower exit guide plate that includes the actuator. B1494010
It is attached with 2 screws and would be easy to swap out. I'd hate to see you have to pay for one though, those things get tossed all the time.

[sakura]

Here is a Service Bulletin on NOISE 4shared.com - document sharing - download G080G367_004.pdf (http://www.4shared.com/document/0ewRnzdp/G080G367_004.html)

[104HeatonRoad]

Hi everyone. Well, I think I fixed it! The printer ran me off some stuff yesterday afternoon without problem. The spring on the fuser exit actuator is temporarily an elastic band, but it works just fine, and the printer no longer makes a noise. Thanks SO much to everyone who chipped in, I genuinely very much appreciate all your contributions. I have to say, having had this printer in bits (and being trained as a heating engineer myself), my respect for both the technology and the engineers who maintain it has risen exponentially.

Take care everyone, best regards, Adam

[teebee1234]

Sounds like you're fully trained on that model now. Give us an address on where to send your certification:eek:

[Shadow1]

Might not be a bad idea to order a transfer cleaning unit - did you happen to notice if the gears were starting to get eaten while you had it out. Usually when I see one clogged up I replace it because it doesn't have long to live.

[104HeatonRoad]

Thanks for the advice, I did have a look at the gears and they looked happy enough. I'll keep my eye on it. Since doing the work I am experiencing that paper drawn from the bypass tray (which is where I do most of my printing from) isn't printing quite straight. Is there an adjustment I have to run after removing with the transfer unit?

[Shadow1]

The machine should automatically run the color alignment and process controls when it warms up after you put it back together (provided the fuser was below 100 Deg - which is almost guaranteed) but you could try forcing the color registration. The transfer unit sometimes will not sit right in the lower guide, but it would be hard to get it back installed. Also, make sure the feed rollers are clean, and the side door is completely latched.

[zyqwiz]

There is no point spending any money on a CL7000 as they are so old - forget the CL7100 & CL7200/7300 (same crap but newer!) - get a SPC811dn or SPC820/821dn which are good