noise.....

[Vintage tech]

Hi out there ,
I Need some advice over a noise from the lower left hand side of a Taskalpha 2552c. I am by training a Ricoh technician (don't throw anything at your screen!!) but one of our customers has inherited a low volume 2552c that functions perfectly apart from an annoying gear clatter from the left hand side. It does not do it while copying, rather if you open and close a door it makes this noise in several shortish bursts, and then will copy ok. I am inclined to think it is associated with the waste toner collection mechanism, (the waste toner bottle feed seems to be about where it is coming from). I don't want to dive in blind (we all know what a world of s**t that can create) and I am sure some of you will know exactly what it will be, just like I usually know what the source of noise in a Ricoh would be.

Anyhow, any advice would be gratefully received

Kind Regards

Steve

[darry1322]

A quick check for toner bottle rotation is to open the waste toner door and use your finger to push the interlock for the door in and see if the bottle rotates cleanly. We've had a few of the waste toner assembly top covers get tweaked out of position and this is where the bottle drive gear is located. The gear loses mesh with the bottle and the bottle won't turn to properly fill. So far we've had to remove the waste toner assembly for proper repair. Long and involved process but not difficult.

[blackcat4866]

Hi out there ,
I Need some advice over a noise from the lower left hand side of a Taskalpha 2552c. I am by training a Ricoh technician (don't throw anything at your screen!!) but one of our customers has inherited a low volume 2552c that functions perfectly apart from an annoying gear clatter from the left hand side. It does not do it while copying, rather if you open and close a door it makes this noise in several shortish bursts, and then will copy ok. I am inclined to think it is associated with the waste toner collection mechanism, (the waste toner bottle feed seems to be about where it is coming from). I don't want to dive in blind (we all know what a world of s**t that can create) and I am sure some of you will know exactly what it will be, just like I usually know what the source of noise in a Ricoh would be.

Anyhow, any advice would be gratefully received

Kind Regards

Steve

I'm inclined to agree with you. Pull off those covers and fire it up. You should be able to pinpoint the source pretty quickly. It's a common failure ... the waste toner collection system that is. And cleaning is usually not the answer. The whole assembly gets changed, and it's a major operation. So I would not do very much exploratory surgery here. If the waste toner system is backing up, cleaning is a waste of time. Something will be broken that you can't MacGuyver. =^..^=

[Vintage tech]

Hi,
Thanks for the feedback and advice, will go back and do some exploratory screwdriver work. If the waste toner assembly comes as one unit, if you could give me a part number that would be great.

Funnily enough (although not unsurprisingly) the Ricoh waste toner system (5503-04 IMC ) is also a ball ache to work on - not overly complicated but an "oh no- not that" repair.....

Anyway,

Thanks again guys....

PS I like black Cats mantra at the bottom....he must know some of our customers!!!

[blackcat4866]

The auger assembly on the back is 302L794023
The waste bottle rotater assy is 302ND94224

If it backs up at the bottle assy you'll need both.
If by some fortunate accident it backs up in the rear, you'll only need the auger assy.
=^..^=

[Vintage tech]

Thanks Black Cat,
much appreciated.

Kind Regards

Steve

[copier tech]

If I can also add this is one fault you don't want to ignore, as once the waste backs up into the dev units it starts to get expensive !

On this model it is designed to use the empty black toner as waste bottle! However this can cause issues so I always supply clients with new waste bottles.