I've got two KM-5530's at this account and have enjoyed a good relationship...but now they've asked me to look at this 8000C nightmare and things are starting to sour. They are using this machine very lightly but it's necesary for their occassional Ledger color prints. I started out with a Y D/V error and a broken lift in one of the cassettes. About 160K total clicks almost exclusively business color (less than 10% color coverage) Since I had never seen the machine before and had some experience with it's cousin the 830D (shudder) I went through it from top to bottom cleaning all vents, cavities, filters, LSU, and Image areas...while troubleshooting the Y D/V error (sorry don't remember exact code tonight) I reached a flustered stupid point and at some point set the DV unit on 2 screws...when it wouldn't quite seat correctly I jiggled it a bit before lifting it out to see why it wasn't seating and discovered the 2 screws and a nasty scar on the drum. I informed the customer of what had happened and told them I would kill 2 birds with one stone by ordering a parts machine I had noticed while browsing my wholesalers inventory. I had the wholesaler ship me the drum unit and the Y D/V unit via UPS and the rest of the machine followed about a week later. The drum looked pretty good if not quite as good as the one I had ruined so I pulled it apart, cleaned the Dr Blade and cleaning unit. Made sure everything looked good and installed it and the Y D/V unit. Error message is gone and has not returned and single pages look perfect...but if it prints a multipage run, about 1 out of every 5 pages with have a shadow of the image repeated about 2.5"-3" from the original image in the direction of feed. The customer could not say for sure wether it had shown this symptom before but now that I've shown it to them they will never be content until it's fixed. (can't blame them) At first I thought it was the fuser (because of the spacing) and when I inspected their fuser I found the 2 pieces of thermal tape had fallen off the thermistor and were in the bottom of the fuser...So I put the fuser from the parts machine in and found no change. After repeatedly crashing in mid job to catch the pages between the transfer and the fuser I finally found one with the defect Before the fuser. So I thought possibley the Cleaning unit was not cleaning properly and put the drum into the old (but probably newer) cleaning unit and still no Change! There is no way I'll be able to bill for the time I've spent on this job and the known used Y D/V unit and Cassette will just cover my cost on the parts machine and shipping costs...So I'm resolved to the fact that this is charity work but it must be done to keep my half a million 5530 clicks in good standing. In deperation I have swapped transfer units as well and as expected had no change. Am I gonna have to fork out the cash for a new drum and go way into the red on this job or does one of you, more experienced Kyota-color techs, recognize these symptoms as something common on this design that can be remedied with a magical fix? Anybody got a known good drum they'd be willing to trade for some other board or assembly out of my parts box? Any help to be offered so that I can enjoy my weekend rather than worrying about what I am going to do Monday? TIA for any comments...and I'm sorry about the novel. -Cope

Just curious. in your cleanings did you address the clutch packs on the machine rear they were common problems on the 830D 850D and printer cousins 8000C and 8008. could very well be the cause of your problems since you already tried my first thought of transfer drum unit. also the clutch on the rear of the transfer unit that raises and lowers up the the drum unit can cause image quality problems. other than that all I can really say is I am sorry and good luck.

Holy cow, I felt pain reading that. I don't have an answer for the problem. The one and only 8000c we put out was such a problem that it almost ruined us. Our regional tech rep visited at least twice and put in multiple maintenance kits to fix it, all way before they were due. The C8026 that replaced that machine drove the customer away from us for good, they now have Canons.

The lone C830 we had in the field just was removed this year with much celebration. It was replaced with a NEC color (Konica-Minolta manufacture) but at least we were able to keep the customer with that NEC. They flat out rejected the C2630 and Voyager machines we demoed there in prior years. Early Kyocera color machines are all money pits and will ruin a little guy. OK current ones are nearly that way too.

Thank you for the comments guys. I really don't want to lose this customer over a minor machine like this.

joedohm: Clutch packs? (ears perk) This may very well be my next logical step. Are these electromagnetic clutches or spring clutches with solenoids? What exactly do they drive? I was wondering after replacing the transfer drum if maybe there was something I was missing that drives the transfer cleaning process. I will ,of course go and study my parts machine for more clues in this respect but I would appreciate any further details you may be able to offer on this apparently common issue with this design.


Chris: I appreciate your empathy. Painful it has been. I have actually contemplated looking at other models of A3 color printers from my wholesaler to possibly switch this machine out just to save some frustration. I was thinking a nice used IRC-3200 would make them much happier in the long run. But of course that would be a last ditch effort offered before ordering a new drum, as I'm sure I'll not be in good enough standing to actually make it a profitable upgrade situation and the best I can hope for in that senario will be breaking even.

Thanks agin for your input guys and anything more that can be offered will be greatly appreciated. -Cope

I think Joedohm has the right idea. Your comment about the clutch sounds like a good possibility. That clutch is on the same assembly as the dv clutches. We had a 850 giving us some cleaning problems and cleaning and lubing that clutch solved the problem.

There are 4 dev unit drive clutches alone on the large drive assembly aswell as others. they are spring clutches that kyocera used their old ear wax grease on I would fully clean them and regrease with ibm grease next to replacing them. It usually solved a few issues. If it is your first time on these clutches allow at least 1.5hrs to 2hrs time

Hi guys.
Just wanted to touch back on this one and give the resolution. I ended up having to put the customer on hold due to almost $5,000 in past due invoices...but they finally paid so I finally went back and finished the job.

I went in deep to get to the drive assy. (wow that thing is buried) When I pulled it out I saw the problem almost immediately. The spring clutch that drive the Txfer cleaning unit has one of those flapper style solenoids on it...of course it was stuck open because the noise dampening foam pad had gone to goo. I pulled it off and cleaned all the goo and adhesive off and re-assembled and now it's running beautifully. So thanks a million to Joedohm for making me look like I new what I was doing on this engineering disaster. -Cope

great job ..cope...keep the good work ..,.a t least you reply with & answer...



DUMMIETEK...japanese is my second language...