Freeing up 1132 printer components - part 7

PULLED CARRIER OUT OF THE PRINTER

I slid a board underneath the carrier, lifting first one side and then the other as the board slid into place. I pulled the carrier out to the left side of the printer frame, moving it across the board, then put it onto my hydraulic lift cart for transport to the bench. 

PRINT CLUTCH LATCH (TRIGGER) WORK CONTINUES

With the other parts out of the way, I have good access to all the points where the latch levers can stick. I added oil and worked them - some are still a tad stiff so I will leave the oil to seep in and finish them up tomorrow. 

REMOVED PRINT CAM CLUTCH SHAFT

Now that the carriage is out of the machine, I had easy access to the three bolts on each side for the bearing caps holding down the print cam clutch shaft and the print wheel drive gear shaft. However, I took a careful look and found parts that were attached to both sides of the divide where the bearing cap would come apart. Not mentioned at all in the maintenance instructions. 

Yellow circles around first part spanning cap

I continued to find spanning parts and removed the screws for each one until I judged I could get a clean separation of the bearing caps. Removing the caps was easy, giving me access to the two shafts.

I examined the ends closely to be certain that nothing else had to be disconnected before I pulled the print cam clutch shaft out of the frame. 

Once I was ready, the actual lift out and carry of the Print Cam Clutch shaft was easy. It was surprisingly heavy but I set it up on the workbench, ready to work on the Print Clutch Dogs. 

PRINT CLUTCH AND PRINT CLUTCH DOG WORK ADDRESSED NEXT

I slid each clutch off the 18 flute print clutch shaft, got oil on the pivot point for the dog and exercised it to be certain it moves cleanly. I also verified that the clutch itself rotates around the shaft when the dog tooth is not engaged in a flute. 

This needs to be repeated 120 times (119 since the last column is partially removed). I finished about 40% of the columns today - it isn't difficult at all, just requires time to carefully move each disk to the left. It is easy to pop the dog off the pivot, but fortunately also easy to get it back on. 

FIRST LOOK AT THE CARRIER ASSEMBLY

The carrier assembly has an electric motor, a gearbox, clutches, two solenoids, and the carriage control tape mechanism. First up was a good cleaning - removing nut shells and other infestation consequences.

The nut was about 3/4" long, just sitting inside the carriage assembly.

 Visually, the entire assembly appears to be in pretty good shape. I could manually engage the two solenoids and either trigger the slow speed (one line) or high speed (skip) clutches. All parts move freely.

I anticipate that I can do a bit of lubrication and then test this out by energizing the 48V carriage motor. Some of the mechanism turns continually, but the two clutches are what couple the motor drive to turn the platen. Since they are also 48V, should be easy to bench test the carriage completely. 

CLEANED UP THE PLATES THAT SIT UNDER/AROUND THE CARRIER

The black painted plates had decades of rodent feces and urine crusting the surfaces. I did some scrubbing and cleaning, making them considerably cleaner and nicer looking. There is still a sludge on the surface that would take far too much work to remove than I am willing to invest.