Swing Plate

[murphy]

:confused: I have to replace a swing plate assy. on a LJ4345MFP. Do I have to remove the circuit board & the associated panels on the back of the machine or is there an easier way ? Any suggestions would sure be appreciated. It looks like you could remove the paper transport assy. with the power supply and get at the screws but I'm not certain. I looked in the Svc. Manual in the replacement section but didn't see anything that relates to removing that particular assy. Thanks...Murphy

[redcow]

Remove formatter. Remove DC controller. Remove fuser.
The short cut which works for me 90% of the time is to change the rear gear. And hope that the white forward gear is ok.
From the outside chassis side unscrew the rear gear. It is on a pivot, so you can push it forward with your finger and watch the screw(from the chassis side) move. That's the screw you want to remove. Unscrew the spare swing plate so you'll see what you are dealing with. Be careful not to drop that threaded shaft into the power supply. That is bad.
When the screw and little shaft are removed, grab the gear and pull it out. The new assembly has a shim. The old one might not. Put a flash light on the part left in the printer. Look at the big white gear. If there is white plastic powder to the left of where the fuser was, you'll have to change the whole assembly. That's bad. If the gear looks good, shove in the new gear and shim, put in the threaded shaft and screw it in.

If you email me I'll send you HP's 5 page pamphlet on changing it.

[cs_steve]

http://www.printertechs.com/tech/assemblies/swingplate/swingplate1.php

[murphy]

I wanted to thank RedCow for the information on replacing the swing plate assy. It took most of one afternoon but with the instructions, went smoothly. I only had a couple of screws left over ! Thanks again for your help. Murphy

[redcow]

Way to go Murphy.
I got it down to 40 minutes. Remember if the white gear is good, you only have to replace the back gear and add the shim. And the kits that I get also contain the fuser pressure roller gear.

The 4200 series are alot easier. Less to remove.