Question HP26500 crashing into side during scan

[MikePro]

first for me, printing just fine for a couple of years, aside from media/ink errors, but suddenly today my HP26500 latex printer wants to SLAM into the far-side of the printer during its power-up/preparingsystem/scan processes. ...and then throws me a media jam error, even with no media in the system.

weekend crunch, and will most likely follow-up with a tech this week, but any suggestions what I should be looking into that could possibly get me back up & running asap?
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only thing i've done recently to the printer, was changing the printhead cleaning kit the day before, but was printing all day yesterday and this morning just fine, until I changed rolls this a.m. and it error'd/SLAM'd. and then now 3 more times it has SLAM'd into the side once I've powered-down/removed the roll/powerer-down/restartedwithoutroll.

 

[Split76]

first for me, printing just fine for a couple of years, aside from media/ink errors, but suddenly today my HP26500 latex printer wants to SLAM into the far-side of the printer during its power-up/preparingsystem/scan processes. ...and then throws me a media jam error, even with no media in the system.

weekend crunch, and will most likely follow-up with a tech this week, but any suggestions what I should be looking into that could possibly get me back up & running asap?
---------------------------------------------------------
only thing i've done recently to the printer, was changing the printhead cleaning kit the day before, but was printing all day yesterday and this morning just fine, until I changed rolls this a.m. and it error'd/SLAM'd. and then now 3 more times it has SLAM'd into the side once I've powered-down/removed the roll/powerer-down/restartedwithoutroll.

could it be worn belt of some error or ink in encoder strip? i had more than fair share of problems with my 265 but not that .. thankfully it finally died and i moved to 365.
Media jam intrest me because my 365 have had few media jams in last 2 months without any reason. Media isn't jammed in any way.

 

[MikePro]

reported myself, hoping to move this thread to HP Forum. lol

aaaaanyways, while watching the mechanics of the scan, I determined the crash point to be this tiny metal arm/hook that sits above the ink cartridges on the far-left side of the printer. appears to be a trigger/emergency stop? whatever it is, it was making contact with the media deflectors and actually hooking-onto it on its return to home pass, causing it to yank/lift the printcarriage during its return motion.
I bent the arm/hook slightly open towards the print carriage, and now the machine scans perfectly! the carriage makes contact with the arm/hook, but then immediately returns home-ward and completes its scan without being "grabbed" by the arm/hook.

 

[MikePro]

we just expanded our facility, bought the building next-door and moving our graphics department over there. TONS of new room and can't wait to start making requests for new equipment.... HP 365 included
....in the meantime, i gotta keep wranglin' the gremlins under this hood. I think problem has been solved, for now. thank god. currently printing graphics for a 30ft tall illuminated guitar pylon sign, a 9ftx75ft wall mural, and 7 sets of vehicle graphics.....all due this week! whew.

 

[ToTo]

Clean the encoder strip along scan axis with WATER and check em for scratches or damages. If that doesn’t solve the issue change scan axis motor.

 

[AF]

Clean the reflector too.