Phaser 850 printhead, bad thermistor, refurb potential?

[blarglith]

I have what appears to be a bad print head on my phaser 850 (receiving the error of 13.001.40 thermistor in the left jet stack appears to be open). This started shortly after the printer went into energy star mode. Previously, I had removed the board supply and main board to give it a good cleaning. Former owner didn't appear to have bothered, so it was really dusty inside.

I have taken the print head out and mostly apart (I've not split the body), and have noted a few things that concern and make me wonder if these things are the cause of the error.

Three of the four heating coils are loose in the print head body (I can take them out) and the brown connector with the green/black/brown wires is very worn from the heat. It's bad enough that it started to crumble when I was connecting it back after checking for damage and loose connections. Currently there is continuity from the translucent connector that plus into the power board to the side of the brown connector that has all black wires.

I also noticed a pair of black wires that goes into a small hole in the print head. I have no idea what this is, but when checking the resistance of this part, along with the brown connector and the heating coils, nothing returned a value that would indicate a open part. Of course, the print head was cold at the time, I'm not about to pull out a hot print head and potentially burn myself or spill ink on my desk and/or carpet.

I have considered soldering the wires in the brown connector, or finding some kind of replacement connector for it, but I don't know what would be suitable for that kind of heat exposure. I don't want my repair to suffer melt down and damage something else!

Can someone tell me if these three wires are the thermistors, or where said parts are in the print head? If it's something that I would have to crack open the body, then is anyone aware of a place that refurbishes these parts or offers a discount (kind of like a core charge seen with automotive parts)?

It seems to be a large waste of time, materials and money to replace a part like this when the bulk of the assembly is in good shape or can be cleaned up and reused without issue.

 

[Michael52x]

You've heard the phrase:Beating a dead horse?
If this is yours and you need color, you can count on more than just the printhead being in need of repairs often. This unit is old, although we still service them under contract only, we generaly say no to any walk-ins.
You seem to have a bit of expertise in handling the printhead, and your willingness to continue is meritous. But all for naught! It sounds like it is gone forever.
There is a core credit with Xerox, but for you , the cost is quite prohibitive. You can get a very good color printer for the $500 you would spend for the 850. If you need the quality of a wax printer, Xerox has re-furbed units for about $500-$800.

 

[blarglith]

I know, it's an older printer. However, it has everything I want in a printer and it cost me less than 100 to pick it up (busted paper flag, caused constant jams) as a 850N, which I've already upgraded it (dirt cheap as well) to a 850DP with 256 megs.

Besides the fact that I enjoy fixing this stuff, it's also kind of a sentimental thing, as I was part of the QA team for this printer (aka the roadrunner) back at Tektronix in Wilsonville.

But if it's going to cost more than it's worth, I'll put it out to pasture. But dang, I love this machine and hate to give up on a really good piece of equipment.