82143A Thermal Printer repair

[4ster]

Outcome: There was some black stuff on the guide bars and the positioning screw. There wasn't much, but it was dry and "un-slippery". Apparently, the residue increased the coefficient of friction as the printer got cooler. I cleaned this off with alcohol (actually hand sanitizer since I couldn't find the alcohol last night). When that had flashed off, I applied dry teflon lube to the moving parts. I also noticed that the bearing on the optical encoder side of the screw was out of position so corrected that as well. And, I didn't have any parts left over when done!

It works! I think the print speed increased after cleaning. Now I have to see if it works better after it gets moved to a cooler location.