Paper Jams

[BrianHornsey]

Whilst I realise the LJ 5000 is a very old printer, it has worked flawlessly for quite a while and has been serviced at regular intervals, including a fuser assy. kit 30,000 pages ago, together with new separators / rollers. It is fitted with a duplexer that has run about 150,000 pages.

Whilst newer printers might be suggested, the 5000 does exactly what I need: large volumes of monochrome printing. I don't want to replace it if I don't have to.

Just recently the printer has been stopping with reports of paper jams '13.2 Duplexer unit' on the control panel display whilst 2-sided printing using standard A4 80 gsm copier paper. However, there is no evidence of the paper being distorted or any other visible reason for it. (there are usually 3 sheets at various points in the print path which have to be cleared)

A3 paper runs without any issue but A4 seems to report errors every 16-32 pages or so. The problem occurs with paper either in Tray 2 or my 500 page add-on tray.

The event log lists these as 13.2 (paper stopped) and 13.1 (paper late) but the error code is followed by a two digit number which I think refers to the specific sensor. Also, the errors vary slightly: 13.2 70, 13.1 58, 13.2 58 & one case of 13.1 50.

I wondered if a sensor was playing up but all the sensors I've tested seem OK (holding them up reports a jam) Given the list above, would anyone be able to specify the specific sensors causing the issue. (20 reports are 13.1 58 or 13.2 58 and 3 are 13.2 70)

Brian

[BrianHornsey]

Morning.

I've been running some tests and I've narrowed it down to the 500 sheet tray.

A print path test from tray 2 works flawlessly, without or without the duplexer.

Drawing from the 500 sheet tray causes an occasional pause (every 8-16 sheets or so) when a sheet isn't picked up and I don't hear the solenoid 'click' the way that tray 2 does. Opening up the printer I find no sheet in the path from the tray to the printer.

When the duplexer is in use, the control panel gives a report that the jam is in the duplexer which was leading me astray.

I've been trying to see if a replacement solenoid is available. I have the maintenance manual and it lists paper pick up solenoids as RH7-5195-000CN. However, it doesn't specifically show this for the 500 sheet tray. Also, trying to obtain this in the UK seems unlikely: I can only find it in the USA.

Is this the correct item or is another one required? If not available, is there another item than can be used instead?

Any help is appreciated.

Brian

[BrianHornsey]

OK, after some investigation (and some help from Google) I found the solenoid was sticking - though for some reason I wasn't seeing a second sheet! After a some repair work it now runs sweetly!

Just one last question, when my 250-sheet tray runs out of paper, it gives me a paper jam error (the log reads as paper late) instead of a paper tray empty error. My 500-sheet tray doesn't suffer this issue.

As far as I can see, the tray empty flag is rising and falling as it should. Is there anything I should check for? Is this a common problem? The maintenance manual doesn't say much about it.

Brian