Help with falcon Jr

[edgette]

Thank you so far for all of the information given on this site, I've learned a ton already.

Some of you answered a few of my questions about pump tubing in another thread. I took the entire maintainance station out to get at the pump but upon further inspection, I'm not sure if the tubing on the pump is bad. It looks like the ink was dripping from the black side of the capping station. Can I just replace that tubing? Should I do all of it since I already have it taken apart?

My original problem was the printer would only print yellow. I bought it used from another member here and it was not stored properly. I bought the cleaning cartridges and ran the clean cycle four times and it would not print anything. There was over a week when it sat from the time I printed yellow to printing nothing.

I put cleaning solvent in the capping station and parked the head for several hours. I get a light blue color only.

So, where should I go from here?

 

[artbot]

yeah the "cleaning cartridges" should be called purging cartridges. they don't do much cleaning of the heads, just the ink lines. the fluid can burn its way through a bunch of crusty ink. keep doing the head soaks for a long time. and yeah you can easily replace the tubing if the gears and such look pristine and you should be good to go. there is a falcon jr. pump rebuild video on youtube if you haven't seen that....

 

[edgette]

I couldn't find the video but cleaned up the pump and inspected the hoses and they looked fine.

I ended up doing a head soak and clean cycles for the last few days. I could see the lines cleaning up and the waste tank was filling up too. I finally put the ink cartridges back in but I still only have a half assed black (REALLY grainy) and no color.

I'm at the point where I need to get work out of this machine and realize I need to buck up and buy some parts, which do I start with?

 

[artbot]

tomorrow there will be some really smart mutoh guys on here. i figure you do have a problem at the head it self, if you are getting flow through the heads it's doubtful that they are clogged bad enough to print nothing (when you are doing the head cleanings, are you getting good fresh ink in your caps?) if you are getting decent flow but nothing printing out, it might be a fuse or the head itself is dead.

before you call the heads completely clogged, always remove them and do soaks on a paper towel. put the head on a dry towel face down, and pour solution right next to the head. the solution will spread out away from the head as it absorbs into the paper. this will force a slight vacuum on the head's printing surface.

 

[edgette]

After I put the ink cartridges back and doing a clean cycle I was not getting fresh in into the damper (except on the black). I pulled the lines with a syringe (I could also see air in the lines) to get the dampers full.

 

[artbot]

there will be a certain amount of air in the lines as you pull the ink. what you don't want is continuous air. when you syringe pull ink into the damper. does it seem to be under a lot of resistance or does it flow evenly? and does the polyester membrane on the damper relax after the syringe is removed or does it remain concave? the fact that you didn't pull ink from a cleaning cycle could be the lines have a clog, or you aren't getting a good seal at the damper. to disprove the seal at the damper issue, put your black pump line on to your color cap line and see if it pulls ink into the waste bottle.

 

[edgette]

I wouldn't say it's a lot of resistance. I could tell the membrane did suck in when I was pulling but looks like it's relaxed as much as the black (which I didn't have to syringe).

Switch the lines at the capping station and run the clean cycle?

 

[artbot]

well, it seems doubtful that the lack of ink is the supplies fault. if the membrane relaxes that means that then ink is also relaxed. the ink in these machines is a siphon, meaning that the chain of ink is falling out of the head. so it has to be relaxed.

yeah if it were my machine, i'd want to know if the cap is to blame. if that black pump which you know is pulling can pull ink from the color side, then you have fewer options to blame.

also, did you mention that you can successfully pull color ink from the cap tube? if you haven't done this yet. with a syringe, pull ink from the cap, look for solid ink traveling to the syringe, or in plus bubbles.

 

[edgette]

Just tried pulling ink from the color side of the capping station. It pulled without any noticeable bubbles and with a fair amount of resistance.

I also just switched the lines on the pump to the capping station and I could see the ink pumping to the waste tank right away.

 

[artbot]

so you got color pumping with the black pump line?

that means:

the heads not clogged, the seal is fine, and the color pump side is not working well. without the sign of bubbles when pulling with a syringe, we know you don't have an air leak at the cap or cap tube. was the color pump able to pull black ink? or nothing?

 

[edgette]

Got color from the black pump line and nothing at all from the color pump line when switched to the black side of the capping station.

 

[artbot]

so you've got something wrong with the color pump.

here's this tutorial.

one thing you can do is take the cap line off the color and put your finger on the end. rotate the pump gear the normal way that the gear turns when pumping, you should be able to feel the suction. also, when unplugged, when you put ink or solution into the color cap, does it disappear or linger then go away?

 

[edgette]

I dropped some solution in the color cap and it drained out of the line right away. The spongy part does look to be swollen compared to the black side, does that matter?

 

[artbot]

i'm not a mutoh guy. but because the black pump easily pulled color from that cap, the sponges have to be ruled out ...if the fluid drained away quickly that points away from there being a clog just under the cap. everything points to the color pump isn't doing well. if when hooked to the black ink, it didn't pump black?

things to look for on the pump, lines reversed (waste line/cap line), a flat spot on your pump tube, air leak at the union connecting it to the caps (actually i don't know if you have a union, my printer does). and clogged pump, which you've ruled out because you already flushed fluid through it, right?

get a small container and put solution in it and dunk the color cap tube into the solution an run a cleaning cycle to see if it pumps.

 

[Robert M]

Pumps

I have those pumps if you need them
$45.00
800-328-1306

 

[edgette]

Artbot - When the black line is hooked to the black ink it does pull ink.

Fluid was going into the waste tank from both sides. I just bought some hose from Robert so I can redo all of the lines. That should be here on Friday so we'll see if that helps.

In the mean time. The black print that did work was super grainy. Could that be because some of the print head is blocked? What would cause that and how can I fix it so when I rebuild the pump I can start doing work?

 

[artbot]

i'd get the pumping situation solved first. the graininess can be caused by blocking to static to ,,,etc.

but to be clear, the black pump line did pull color ink, it's just the color pump line that can't pull correct?

 

[edgette]

Correct.

 

[edgette]

Thanks to Robert at solventinkjet.com I got my new hose in today so I could rebuild my pump. Everything went great on the rebuild and my printer is FINALLY PRINTING! I will need a new clip that holds the pump transmission gear in place some time soon (tape keeping it together now) but at least I'm getting somewhere with this.

Now a new set of questions. I am posting a few pictures because I need help fine tuning my print. I'm getting some banding and fuzzy edges, wondering if you guys have some pointers.

Print on the right is before the new hose, the left is after.

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[edgette]

Images attached for reference.