Need Help Gerber FX part

[Alex P]

Hi,
Does anyone know if this part can be purchased? The plastic area which the little roller pin sits which slides on the aluminum frame and in turn retracts the cartridge end roller drives when the head raises. The plastic area of this black assembly which my pin sits has cracked and the end drives now do not fully retract making it difficult to remove the caddy. I've repaired the part once in an emergency without removing it but now it's cracked again, Does anyone know what is involved in removing this part?
Thanks in advance
Al.

 

[Joe House]

That's the foil ramp. You should be able to get it through a Gerber distributor or straight from Gerber. I almost gave you the toll free number till I saw you were in the UK. Check with you distributor.

Good Luck

 

[Alex P]

Hi Joe,
Thanks for your reply, I'll contact my Gerber distributor tomorrow (Spandex). So you know if these are prone to breaking and how easy they are to replace. When I performed the emergency repair I couldn't quite remove it from the chassis as I didn't want to remove any delicate items with then needed an engineer visit to reset components.
Thanks

 

[Joe House]

I've not seen one broken, but have seen them wear and had to replace a couple of them for that reason (it was kind of an overhaul of the loading system, otherwise I probably wouldn't have replaced it on it's own).

Good Luck

 

[Alex P]

You've mentioned that you replaced one in the past, was this just the screw in roller pin or the whole black plastic assembly, how big a job is it to replace. The one thing I remember is that the pins that press in through the shafts on the end drives were stopping me from removing this assembly fully and I seemed to be trying to remove this part probably all in the wrong order hence the in-situ repair.

 

[Joe House]

There are tiny set screws in the ends of the pins, behind the screws you can see. I think they're 1.5mm Allen screws. Loosen those set screws and the pins come out easily. It stumped me for a while till I spoke with a tech at Gerber about it.

 

[Alex P]

Thanks again for the information, it will prove helpful. The pins I'm referring to are these shown in the picture, hopefully it's also these that you mention
Thanks

 

[Joe House]

Good Luck

 

[Alex P]

Hi Joe,
I managed to remove the Black plastic item (foil push ramp) today following your detailed instructions. There is no way I would have expected to find those set screws without your help....many thanks!
I had manually lower the caddy and head frame so I could get at the upper slider screws for this part and hopefully the machine will find the correct position once switched back on.
I'm just awaiting a cost of the replacement parts from my UK supplier and hopefully it will not be too long before we are back up and running.
Thanks again.

 

[Joe House]

As long as you don't mess with the home position flags, it should be fine once you power it back up.

Good Luck

 

[Alex P]

Hi,
All I did was manually lower the caddy and head carriage by screwing the main screw (1) by hand from its switched off position, I will manually raise the caddy and head carriage once back together to very roughly the same spot.
The sensor flap / flag which I think you are referring to (2) has not been touched in anyway.
I assume this will be fine when powered up?

 

[Joe House]

You'll be ok. While you're in there, I'd clean up the excess grease around the Z-axis screw. It does no good out there and can attract dirt as well as drip down on sensitive electronics. It's not uncommon to see too much grease or oil in places like that. There should only be a small amount of grease on the screw itself, then run it in and out of the block, then remove any excess that came off the screw at the nut. Same thing goes down below around the ramp. I usually clean off any existing grease with alcohol wipes before applying just a small amount to the friction areas - anywher 2 pieces slide against each other during normal operation.

 

[Alex P]

Fantastic will do.
Thanks for the help and advice !