hp9000 not priming heads

[eye4clr]

It appears that the prime assemblies (little pumps connected to the caps) are not doing their jobs. None of them move during a cleaning.

All the gears on the outside face of the capping assembly move during prime/cleaning. But the pumps don't move.

I tried spinning the gears that share an axle to move the prime pumps and it did not spin freely. In fact I couldn't spin it by hand at all.

Help!

 

[eye4clr]

Pulled all the prime pumps and they each move individually. Running the prime without the pumps on, the gears move.

Looks like something with the shared actuating gears has stripped that I can't see.

Any ideas?

 

[csc]

If your prime pumps have a lot of hours then the pump tubing may be flat and not pump enough ink. you might have to replace the tubing in all the pumps.
Check your capping station caps for tears or hardness, they should be soft and pliable. Make sure print heads don't have built up dry ink as this may cause air to get into the caps when priming.
good luck

 

[eye4clr]

Turns out the gear that sits outside the housing of the pumps was stripped just enough that if it was not engaged with the pumps it would turn, but if I held my hand on the axle a bit, it would just sit and not spin.

To my ignorant eye, it looked like I could just pull the offending gear, replace it and be back up. NO. I had to get an entire new capping $$$$tation. I complain, but it was due for new caps and pumps anyway.

Thanks for the response.