Gs6000 Dampers

[Reaction GFX]

Anyone ever replace the dampers on a GS6000 themselves? I'm just wondering how involved of a job it is. We purchased our GS6000 lightly used in 2011, and it was manufactured in 9/2008. I'm unsure if the dampers have ever been replaced...I know they haven't been replaced since we've owned it. The thing still runs and prints like a champ for the most part, but we do have some, what I believe to be, ink delivery issues. On long runs with solid areas of color the color will vary from the beginning of the print to the end. For example, an 8' print with a nice, vibrant red background might start out nice and vibrant, by by the end of the print it definitely looks more pinkish and less vibrant. Similar with purple--one end of print leans more blue, other end leans more magenta. After talking to a few techs, it seems the problem has something to do with ink delivery as it's not delivering the proper amount of a particular ink consistently. Reds, blues and purples seem to be most affected, but I've seen it in greens as well. Nozzle checks look great. Figured I'd start by replacing the dampers and see if anything changes. We sure as heck don't really want to pay $175/hr + trip + parts for Decision 1 to come out and do the work on a 9 year old machine if we absolutely don't have to. I'm pretty mechanically inclined and I do have a copy of the service manual, but would like to hear from someone that has done the job to get an idea just how difficult it is. Are there things I may have difficulty adjusting to complete the job? That's a concern of mine. Swapping the parts is one thing, but getting it back up and running properly after the swap is another. I appreciate any input! Thanks!

 

[Misho]

Anyone ever replace the dampers on a GS6000 themselves? I'm just wondering how involved of a job it is. We purchased our GS6000 lightly used in 2011, and it was manufactured in 9/2008. I'm unsure if the dampers have ever been replaced...I know they haven't been replaced since we've owned it. The thing still runs and prints like a champ for the most part, but we do have some, what I believe to be, ink delivery issues. On long runs with solid areas of color the color will vary from the beginning of the print to the end. For example, an 8' print with a nice, vibrant red background might start out nice and vibrant, by by the end of the print it definitely looks more pinkish and less vibrant. Similar with purple--one end of print leans more blue, other end leans more magenta. After talking to a few techs, it seems the problem has something to do with ink delivery as it's not delivering the proper amount of a particular ink consistently. Reds, blues and purples seem to be most affected, but I've seen it in greens as well. Nozzle checks look great. Figured I'd start by replacing the dampers and see if anything changes. We sure as heck don't really want to pay $175/hr + trip + parts for Decision 1 to come out and do the work on a 9 year old machine if we absolutely don't have to. I'm pretty mechanically inclined and I do have a copy of the service manual, but would like to hear from someone that has done the job to get an idea just how difficult it is. Are there things I may have difficulty adjusting to complete the job? That's a concern of mine. Swapping the parts is one thing, but getting it back up and running properly after the swap is another. I appreciate any input! Thanks!

Hi
Did u replace the dampers as u said in your message? If Yes please help by sending the steps so i can change mine too. Thanks in advance

 

[Reaction GFX]

Hi
Did u replace the dampers as u said in your message? If Yes please help by sending the steps so i can change mine too. Thanks in advance

No, we ended up paying Decision One to come out and do it...turned into a bit of a fiasco. Apparently, they do not commonly replace just dampers without replacing heads, or so the tech said. The tech did it, but he said he had to remove the heads to replace the dampers so as not to make a mess...but in the process our print quality on the black head went bad. Machine was printing considerably worse overall when the tech left than when he arrived. Needless to say, we were pretty unhappy with the whole experience. Thankfully, after A LOT of cleaning cycles and printing, our print quality is pretty much back to where it was before the tech touched my machine.

There is a video on Youtube of a guy replacing the dampers WITHOUT removing the heads, but it's in Spanish. I don't speak Spanish, but was able to watch and get the gist of it. Looks pretty straight forward and I'm certain I could do this job myself in the future.

 

[Misho]

fully agree with you .. thanks for the reply

 

[IvanDD]

Will be attempting to replace dampers without changing the head later this week. Will update you guys on how it went.