Printheads carriage

[Spottedowldesig]

 I have a L26500. Bought used off of someone about 5 years ago. I have had issues here and there but nothing major. All the sudden today I went to replace a printhead and when I let the computer do its thing after I installed it, I heard a huge knock inside. Seemed like the printhead carriage wasnt able to move and it told me to shut down and restart. When I start it back up it says it ready to print. So I try to make a test print. The printhead carriage goes back and forth getting ready to print and as soon as it gets ready to print, the carriage goes across my vinyl sometimes

in the middle, sometimes right at the start of the vinyl and it stops. And tells me to restart computer. I also tried when starting it back up to do the printhead alignment and thats when it does the loud knock and stops before it gets a chance to start. Never had this happen before. Any help you could give me would be appreciated.

cleaned the carriage rail and lubricated it. Then it did do one printhead alignment. Thought it was fixed. Went to replace another printhead since it was working again, then it did the knock again and told me to shut down. Any suggestions?

[Repairatrooper]

If there is a encoder strip on the carriage you should try cleaning that. The printer may be losing track of where the carriage is. As this is basically a plastic strip with a fine grid printed on it, cleaning must be gentle. Put two drops of alcohol on a soft lint free cloth and then dampen the cloth with water to dilute the alcohol. Gently draw the cloth across the strip. If it is dirty, then there is a good chance this will solve your problem.