In message , Lobster
writes
Bob Eager wrote:
On Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:26:42 +0000, Lobster wrote:

I currently have an old LaserJet 5 printer - bought it off ebay for
about £35 delivered a few months ago and have been delighted with it
(not least of which because I can get original HP toner carts for it via
the same route for a tenner - many thousands of sheets of paper later
and I'm still on the first cart - what's not to like?!)

Unfortunately it's just developed a paper jam error and I'm wondering if
any of the IT gurus here might be able to advise? It's gone straight
from never jamming at all, to doing so 100% of the time: the paper is
picked up OK but jams just before it enters the fuser assembly. I've
asked a couple of commercial outfits locally but they tell me it's not
worth the cost of them even looking at it, which nearly makes my hair
bleed - I'm convinced the problem is going to be something really
trivial to someone who knows what to look for, and I'm appalled at the
thought of just skipping the printer, as advised.
I wonder if the fuser rollers are actually turning. It's easy enough
to remove the fuser. You can check that the two drive gears (one on
the fuser, one on the chassis) are not damaged. You can also turn the
gear on the fuser and see if both rollers actually turn.
I may have some s/h parts...
To get the fuser out, open the rear flap. There are two vertical
screws fixing the visible side of the fuser baseplate down into the
chassis. Remove those and it slides out. The flap is best removed
first; unhitch the plastic strap and take out the little plastic
latch on the hinge, then slide the flap sideways to release the hinge pin.

Excellent, Bob, thanks - far better info than I could glean from all my
web-surfing! I duly popped out the fuser unit and sure enough, the
central large plastic gear wheel is in bits. :-(

So, not so excellent in that it's rather more serious than I thought
but at least I know what the problem is. All the reconditioned fuser
units I can see online seem to be far more expensive than the printer;
a pity as the fuser itself was absolutely fine. Can these gears be
changed (if they can be sourced, that is?) The fuser unit looks very
un-dismantleable to me...

Exactly the same problem I had with my Epson C1000

It was cheaper to buy a new printer than the fuser unit (Can't afford
downtime in the winter)
--
geoff