Standard SD630 (ricoh JP8000?) Drum started whining and then went blank

[khobo1]

Was flushing drum because it had been sitting around... pages suddenly went blank and master is dry.

i noticed a whining as well

using expired ink i'm guessing is the cause?

Please tell me there's potentially an easy way to fix this?

[slimslob]

First thing to check for is either a sheet of paper or another master under the current master. The noise may have been the ink pump trying to suck ink out of the cartridge. You can try using a thin screwdriver or small spring hock to check the consistency of the ink in the cartridge. Beyond that you're screwed. The only way to get at the pump and the rest of the inking system is to remove both the cloth screen and the metal screen and considering that this model was first 22 years ago, parts might not be available. Ink is available but not drums, new/used/rebuilt. The placed I found that listed them is currently out of stock. Private message me if you need the service manual.

One more thing, if you do decide to take it apart, the ink is near impossible to remove from any surface it gets on. Cover everything you can with puppy training pads and old newspaper. Water-less hand cleaner and Scrubs wipes are an absolute must have.

[khobo1]

i'm thinking maybe since it had been sitting around for 5 years that some ink clogged the sensor....

it doesnt' give me a no ink warning even though the drum is empty.

it didn't just stop working it sort of gradually faded

only really concerning part to me abotu this is the whining sound?

sounds like a drive gear or something...

hoping it could just be the ink pump just trying to suck in ink?

[khobo1]

ended up being that those 2 ink sensor pins had been gunked up... poked around with them with a qtip to clean them off.. hopefully didn't bend anything they're really thin

i also changed the ink check to happen every time before i print.. so now it's pumping pretty nicely...

any downsides to that?

i'm a bit worried if i bent the sensor then it'll just continually think that there's no ink and i'm about to have the opposite problem!

[GIUBOSS]

I'd just clean those slats well without changing their position, you could also heat the ink a little to make it melt more