Looking for (idler?) gear wheel of HP-46 printer unit

[Duane Hess]

Will add on here, seems just as reasonable to continue as to make a new thread.

Those of you who fabricated a new gear, how did the printer sound afterwards?

Mine prints/advances great. However, it is LLOOUUDD! Way louder than before. Previous to repair the motor and drum turned but that was it. After 2-3 print attempts the paper advanced and the gear disintegrated. Excess noise occurs simply from running (rotating). Printing, i.e. firing the hammers, sounds normal.

Everything is greased & oiled. All appears to be aligned and the gears mesh well. Not sure what the source of the noise is. It has a very, very slight metal on metal sound along with a notable grind/rotate sound. Does not strike me as a gear lash or looseness type of sound, but I have no particular experience with such things.

The motor, motor shaft, brass collar on the opposite end of the shaft were never removed or adjusted.

Quite sure everything was clean after reassembly with no old grease or debris. The bearings on the motor shaft were oiled. The drum shaft bearings, shaft gear rides on and gear teeth are all well greased or oiled.

It's hard to tell where the noise comes from. It seems to come from "back" and "lower"/"mid" of the printer which could imply the motor shaft. The motor, shaft, gear/collar on the right side were not messed with at all. However, the shaft bearings were oiled. You could feel zero play in any part of that mechanism. Not sure if the noise comes from there or not.

I have a number of HP printers (EP-102) and Canon printers (EP-104) which are all consistent in sound and noise levels. The unrepaired 46 was similar to the other devices. The refurbished 46 is LOUD, LOUD, LOUD, from just rotating. You would think this means motor shaft, drum shaft and/or the repaired gear train.

What are other's experiences? Any "you should always check" type of adjustments/comments?

thanks!

[Duane Hess]

On a separate subject & because I forgot to try it before bolting the printer back in.....

The printer cable appears long enough for PCB connection & sitting the printer outside the case on the table. The printer might need to be oriented backwards. This may allow previously mentioned O-scope testing. Don't know where the test points are.

When testing the resurrected on/off switch the cable hung out the notchy gasket between the top & bottom halves of the case. Didn't bolt anything down; put the cable in a notch & set the top case on. Figured if a capacitor exploded on me the weight of the top case should be enough.

This might work with the printer cable. If test points are on the PCB lifting the printer lid may allow access.

Just a thought.