In article , Lobster davidlobsterpot601@
hotmail.com writes

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. :-(

It's the heat from the fuser lamp that causes that.

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

Yes.

(if
they can be sourced, that is?) The fuser unit looks very
un-dismantleable to me...

It's not. Just take it slowly and steadily. One thing about these
printers is how intuitively they go back together.

--
Mike Tomlinson