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VJ1324 Mutoh Carriage Noise when moving/printing Left and Right

Hello folks,

I have a carriage noise when my Mutoh VJ1324 is printing. It started about 8 inchs into a print. The print Quality has not been lost. I suspect it may be a bearing... but when i do a media cut or load media it do not hear it....But when go to CR maintenance i do hear it as it goes the the maintenance station and back to the capping station.

Not sure where to go yet wanted to get other Mutoh users advice before i dive in!

The printer head and cap station is clean
the track is clean
Printer is about 4 years old.

Thanks in Advance
 

GAC05

Quit buggin' me
From my own anecdotal evidence (I am not a tech) I think white lithium grease will do. I ran out of the Mutoh KY lube and picked up some Lucas oil white lithium from Home Depot. You are not packing the sealed bearings so it just needs to be thicker than oil as to not drip down on the prints but not so stiff that that it gums up the wheels and gets spun out to again land on your prints.
In any case - less is more - a little dab will do ya..
 
From my own anecdotal evidence (I am not a tech) I think white lithium grease will do. I ran out of the Mutoh KY lube and picked up some Lucas oil white lithium from Home Depot. You are not packing the sealed bearings so it just needs to be thicker than oil as to not drip down on the prints but not so stiff that that it gums up the wheels and gets spun out to again land on your prints.
In any case - less is more - a little dab will do ya..

Thanks, im going to give that a try first.

Another thing i noticed is that when loading media or using Media Cut the Head travles slower so that seems like why i dont hear the noise.

The Noise did start abruptly....8 inchs into the print it was "normal sounding" and the next pass it had this "rational movement" type noise.
 

FatCat

New Member
Also, something you might want to check is the roller bearings on the ends of the machine that tension the steel belt. I had a 1604 make kind of a whining/chirping sound only at a certain spot and thought it was carriage bearings. Got so bad the machine would throw up a E074 error and shut down. After lots of trial and error, turned out it was that large roller bearing on the operator side. I added a few drops of fishing reel oil and problem solved.
 
Also, something you might want to check is the roller bearings on the ends of the machine that tension the steel belt. I had a 1604 make kind of a whining/chirping sound only at a certain spot and thought it was carriage bearings. Got so bad the machine would throw up a E074 error and shut down. After lots of trial and error, turned out it was that large roller bearing on the operator side. I added a few drops of fishing reel oil and problem solved.

Thanks FatCat, im going to try a little grease in the sealed bearings, i have noticed (what little i have run it) that when i override and run carriage at low speed its not a bad, The noise does run the whole width, but i have had a few moments where the noise dissipates then comes back. The Noise is deferentially more noticeable at high speed carriage motion

Did you remove anything to get to the bearings?
 

FatCat

New Member
Did you remove anything to get to the bearings?

Nope, just remove the side covers and ad a few drops directly on top of the shaft bearing - it will work itself down thru the bearing as it runs. Went away in just a few seconds for me and was fine for a long time after.
 
Nope, just remove the side covers and ad a few drops directly on top of the shaft bearing - it will work itself down thru the bearing as it runs. Went away in just a few seconds for me and was fine for a long time after.

Thanks buddy! i greased the tracking up GAC stated too and used fishing reel oil on the tension bearings, between the two it seemed to take care of the noise, it wasnt bad to the point i was like OMG my printer is gonna blow out or something but i do "hear" things all the time, lol
 
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