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The transfer belts on this series are translucent and the image density sensors read through the belt and use the reflection of the shiny roller at the top of the belt. If that roller is dirty or has a lot of debris on it under the belt, the machine will never pass a line position. Saw it plenty of times on the LD232c and its sister machines.
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That's very good to know. Would entail taking the belt off, no? I'll check that out for sure.Originally Posted by rthonpm
For black and white I've got it down to a faint toner mark in the middle of the page (vertically on an 8.5 x 11 so the width of the transport unit).
The scraping blade on the transfer cleaning unit is in pretty rough shape and needs to be replaced for sure.
Whole belt off, then hoping you can get it back on without damaging it.
You must be a glutton for punishment for going through all of this. As soon as the MP C3500/4500 series machines came out, I told my sales guys to get them sold to everyone who had the copier version of your printer.
That said, I have a soft spot for that series: they were stupid easy to work on for PM parts, and if not for the whole 45 degree crazy angle transfer assembly they would have been great machines. Likely for the money, and cash equivalent of the time, you're putting into this machine you could pick up a second hand model that's generations newer and more reliable.
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I got it used dirt cheap when it was maybe 10 years old as "corporate surplus." I do short book runs with black and white internals so the unit did real well because of the large paper handling and duplexer. At that time it was cheaper for me to print my own with the Ricoh than use a service for short runs but now it costs about the same. A lot of that business has gone POD, which is a remote laser-copier with bindery attached.
This unit was needing a service when it went into storage and from what I'm seeing 99.99% of the problems have to do with dirt and toner getting in the wrong spots. It's knowing where to look that's the tricky part.
I do admire how the whole thing is put together as they really facilitated the unit being serviced. I did radio and TV tech back in the day and that stuff started becoming impossible to fix. Computers went the same way, so this is kinda refreshing.
For graphics I've been using an ink-jet but that doesn't cut it when press-proofing for a laser-print run. I really like the Ricoh's print quality and am glad it's still limping along. When it starts becoming impossible I'll drop it off at the recyclers. It doesn't owe me anything.
Alignment issues - perhaps dirt went below the transfer belt and on that "glossy/chrome" surfarfaced roller that is also the "reflector" to the ID sensors. General density should also look fine for each color in order to create solid MUSIC/Calibration patterns.
I think the CL7000 also uses an oil unit for the Fuser - better put a fresh one in, otherwise you might find the separator strippers inside the fuser rollers^^
Last time I took it apart I went over the transfer unit from the outside and cleaned what little there was. It's very possible the area underneath is dirty and I will look that area over more closely. I'm a bit reluctant to pull it apart since it works in b&w, which is the bulk of my needs, and if I mess anything up I could take the machine out of service altogether.
General density of the MUSIC/Calibration patterns appears solid in all 3 areas.
Thanks for the heads-up on the fuser oil unit. It's on the list of parts along with a toner scraping blade. Finding them is going to be interesting. I put a call into Ricoh Canada but they're like trying to get answers from the government. The very nice gentleman on the phone said that because they still have service calls on the unit as a chargeable there's a very good chance parts are still around but I've not heard back on my request yet.
There's also a very good chance I didn't do something right when I put the unit back together. It didn't have any alignment issues before I took it apart so I'm suspect of myself.
The notes in the service manual on page 320 talk about aligning the drive gears on the transfer unit and the cleaning unit. I'm not sure I understand what they're saying as that area isn't very visible. How critical is it to get this exactly as it was set at the factory?
I went over the manual again and noticed the screw that should be holding the transfer cleaning unit was missing. There wasn't one on it when I started this so the last person (Ricoh tech) who serviced it didn't replace the screw and none could be found. I was able to find one in my screw-box that works, so that unit is in there as it should be now.
Just to be sure I ran a check of the Developer Initialization as that's another area the manual says could throw a sensor error and all developer units report working fine.
While I was in there I took a good look at the top of the transfer belt for the sensor reflectors and that area appears to be clean (without taking the unit apart). If there is dirt under the belt I'm going to have to take that unit apart to see it. Looking over the manual it isn't for the faint of heart and an area of the design they didn't really think out from a service POV.
According to the counter there are only 65,000 prints on the machine so unless the counter was reset before I got it there aren't a lot of miles on this unit.
I'm waiting on Ricoh who have indicated they might just have the parts I'm looking for to keep this thing running.
I did a dump of the settings and cross-referenced everything to the manual. The unit threw it's first SC at around 52,000 prints when it experienced a hard-disk failure. The unit has the hard-disc option but no hard-drive. The drives are only used when the machine has a mailbox or other attachment so this must have been part of a corporate printer farm or something. I got the unit with around 55,000 prints so it was sold off not long after the hard drive went. The only other SCs have been related to the recent alignment issue that we've already discussed.
The transfer belt has some damage to it and the transfer cleaning unit isn't doing it's job. It may just be cheaper and easier to replace the whole transfer unit if one is available. It's possible they swapped in a transfer unit from an older machine before they put it up for sale which would explain the discrepancy between the number of prints on the machine and the wear and tear on the belt, etc.
There have been suggestions the Ricoh SP-C840DN is a current replacement. Is that a good machine?
Yes they are a very good machine. Based on the MPCxx04.
hi, be careful: check all the development unit, and the drum units, put on a table, and turn them by hand by turning the rear gear, check that they are all free to turn, and there is no development group " hard to turn ", this would cause the problem you have reported, beyond the calibration
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