Epson Stylus Color 800 Heads hit right side occasionally on starting

[squelch41]

Hi,

I have an epson stylus colour 800.
Occasionally, when it starts, the heads go too far to the right and make
banging and crunching noises. This results in the need to run a cleaning
cycle.
The print quality has deterorated recently also.

Any idea how to fix this? I have tried running isopropyl alcohol through the
head but this doesnt seem to have helped.

Thanks
Matt

 

[Flycaster]

Hi,

I have an epson stylus colour 800.
Occasionally, when it starts, the heads go too far to the right and make
banging and crunching noises. This results in the need to run a cleaning
cycle.
The print quality has deterorated recently also.

Any idea how to fix this? I have tried running isopropyl alcohol through the
head but this doesnt seem to have helped.

Clean the long silver bar that the head travels on, and lube it.

 

[squelch41]

I have tried that.
I wonder if the internal software within the printer needs reseting - is
there a button sequence to do this?

Cheers
Matt

 

[Bob Burke]

Hi,

Are you sure that the problem is as a result of the carriage moving too far
to the right.

I have similar symptoms with my Epson Stylus Color 800, I traced it back to
a small plastic lever which is below the carriage bar and which pivots
upward when the ink cartridges are "parked" on the extreme right. This lever
appears to have to pivot downward out of the way when the machine is turned
on and it does it's cleaning cycle dance and also when it prints.

The movement of this lever has become sluggish, due to ink deposits on it's
pivot point, this on occasion prevents it from moving out of the way.

After removing the top of the printer case to give better access, I tried
packing under the part with absorbent cloths (which had to be changed
several times) then flushing the problem area with Windex, introduced with a
hypodermic syringe, which I normally use for refilling ink cartridges.

This rapidly dissolved the congealed ink. The problem lever was manually
moved backwards while the area was being flushed and it quickly became free.
I then lubricated the joint with a couple of drops of "3-in-one" oil and the
printer is now working perfectly. Note: "3-in-one" oil is what I used, but
it is likely that there is a more appropriate lubricant (possibly a silicone
grease) available somewhere but I'm not an expert..

Good Luck
Bob

 

[Bob Burke]

Hi,
I have similar symptoms with my Epson Stylus Color 800, I traced it back to
a small plastic lever which is below the carriage bar and which pivots
upward when the ink cartridges are "parked" on the extreme right. This lever
pivots downward out of the way when the machine is turned on and it does
it's cleaning cycle dance and also when it prints.

The movement of this lever has become sluggish, due to ink deposits on it's
pivot point, this on occasion prevents it from moving out of the way.

After removing the top of the printer case to give better access, I tried
packing under the part with absorbent cloths (which had to be changed
several times) then flushing the problem area with Windex, introduced with a
hypodermic syringe, which I normally use for refilling ink cartridges.

This rapidly dissolved the congealed ink. The problem lever was manually
moved backwards while the area was being flushed and it quickly became free.
I then lubricated the joint with a couple of drops of "3-in-one" oil and the
printer is now working perfectly. Note: "3-in-one" oil is what I used, but
it is likely that there is a more appropriate lubricant (possibly a silicone
grease) available somewhere but I'm not an expert..

Good Luck

 

[JM]

quoting:

Try lubing up the carrier bar. A known issue is when the carrier bar gets
really dry and devoid of lube. The head will "stick" at start up and think
it's all the way to the left, then try to move right.... *grind* *grind*
*bang*.