LJ4050 Noise

[EddieC]

My 4050 makes a groaning & vibrates the chassis when it pulls paper from the bottom paper drawer. It happens on each sheet of paper. It is fine from the upper open tray and the printing is alright. The printer is 7 years old but only has about a total of 55,000 prints on it.

I am not seeing any contamination on the large central roller on the drawer and there is some texture left on it.

Any ideas of what to look for?

[MichaelTech]

The torque limiter that sits to the right of the roller should be replaced.
RB1-8974
The white gear on the right side of the tray may be worn also.

[EddieC]

Where do I find those?
Is it brain surgery to replace?

[redcow]

It's easy. How many trays are on your printer?

[EddieC]

1 removable sliding one; no optional trays.

[woodss]

it certainly does sound, that the torque limiter is worn, don't use this tray till its replaced because it could break the gear train.

You can pop it open by pushing its shaft down against the shell of the torque limiter, this to me is only a band-aid solution, because it can wear out.

My 4050N has two trays too and a duplexer and it has done 243,312 prints and its still on its original torque limiter, however if it gives me trouble I'm going to order a pair of new ones, I have replaced the seporation rollers and 4 half size D rollers last year for tray 2, and cleaned the full D rollers and replaced the seporation rollers for tray 3, and replaced the pickup roller for tray 1 and replaced the transfer roller too, and replaced the heater assembly on the fuser assembly so its pretty much refurbished.

when a vibration occurs that usually means that one of the shafts are not turning freely, and its very likely that the torque limiter has harden and needs replacement.

[woodss]

The torque limiter that sits to the right of the roller should be replaced.
RB1-8974
The white gear on the right side of the tray may be worn also.

Gears don't become worn, it grinds and teeth wears down over time caused by the grinding, and what causes it, lack of lubrication on the shaft, only teeth that become worn is in the fuser assembly because heat as you know causes it to become brittle, plastic and heat are natural enemies, most of the time this a most common fuser / gear train failure.

When I service a printer the fuser is one of the first places, I inspect regardless if the fuser is causing a problem, I do a gear check on both gear train and fuser, I use a small flat bladed screwdriver to gently twist against the gears, if the teeth break easily then I know that the gear is brittle, then I replace the gear and I only do this if I know that the gear can be replaced if it cant then I don't do it.

Most of the time, I clean the gears with a tooth brush to clean off the excess toner and paper dust and lubricate the gears and run a air compressor inside the printer, and it makes the printer squeaky clean, to those techs that don't like the practice its better than vacuuming because it reaches where the vacuum cant reach without disassembly.

Little things like this make a real difference, if most of you don't do these little things that take 5 mins extra, its a good investment of time that saves the customer another service call, something you knew was going to fail but didn't correct it at last service call, this does not make you look good to the customer, I prefer giving quality service that takes extra time than spend 20 mins only, the extra 5 mins might save another call, fellow techs keep that in mind.

Thats my theory of gears wearing down.

[EddieC]

Thanks all.

[woodss]

sometimes the most simple thing brings down the the enitre machine, i have heard of stories on the TV about a plane that crashed because of duct tape was on the sensor of the wing upsetting the dials on the cockpit.

Check the spring on the same shaft as the torque limiter, make sure that has tension, its very important to check the simple things first, doing that makes a real diffrence.