JV3-160 SP fill up ink does'nt work

[ignaciomherrera]

I bought a used Mimaki JV3-130 printer. When I try to fill up ink, lines with yellow fill up no problem, but no ink is being sucked from cyan, black and magenta cartridges. Could somebody please make a suggestion where I should look to fix the problem? I have no history with this printer and I also need to consider that anything could happen during the transportation to my place.

 

[MikePro]

what you DO know, is that your yellow ink supply is working just fine.
use that to start your diagnosis.

start by swapping dampers/ink lines from B/C/M with the yellow. hopefully they will fill and then you know that the issue is below the printhead. if they don't, then you've got a LOT of work ahead of ya. if they DO, then you most likely just have a bad capping station and/or ink pump/drain lines.

keep the thread posted. plenty of people here will try to help.

o, and welcome to signs101

 

[jacksonsigns]

I am having a similar problem with a used JV33-160 that I just bought. Difference is that none of them are filling.

 

[artbot]

because yellow is at the tail end of the capping station. that lends me to believe that you may have your caps misaligned and the yellow is camming up higher than the balance of the capping station. paint the edges of your caps with black ink. now park the heads on the caps. pull the carriage to the side/left and with a flash light look at the bottom heads. do you see good clean imprints of the caps making centered contact with the heads? or do you see outlines that are broken, missing, or sitting on the SS edge of the head platen?

you may need to shim the front side of your capping station, or stretch its internal springs out just a bit to get more upward force.

one other thing to try is when you are doing the ink fill, push up on the bottom of the capping station to compress it up against the heads. does this help pull ink or no help? make sure if you think you do have mysterious air leak to get an automotive stethoscope to listen for air (pull a vacuum at the waste line and listen for the hiss).

also, if you pour cleaning solution down the caps, does it disappear. a common place for a clog is right beneath the caps.

good luck and keep us posted. there are a lot of jv3 veterans on this board that have been through what you are just now encountering for years. mikepro, and many others know these machines really well.

 

[jacksonsigns]

hands covered in ink

OK, after working on it for 12+ hours I have finally fixed my issues. I did not put this in my previous post but I was not even able to draw in with a syringe with the valves taped open. The problem was the valves behind the ink cartridges were clogged. I took them apart and cleaned them and reassembled and was able to draw ink with no problems (I did not try to use the automatic ink fill). One thing to remember, if you are running cmyk x2, the lines are linked together with a cross over so you have to suck through both lines at the same time or you will just suck the ink out of the other line. I accomplished this by purchasing a "y" designed for vacuum lines from an auto parts store. The smallest one actually fit right into the bottom of the dampers and made a good seal. Hope this helps with your problem.