Mechanical problem with Epson DFX 8000

[IBDEWEY]

I installed a new right tractor feed in an Epson DFX-8000 dot matrix printer. Now when the customer prints something the vertical columns are screwed up. Sometimes each line down in the paper is moved to the right a few characters other times one line is ok the next line is right one character and the next line is ok and that repeats down the page. I thought it may be the software, but they have another DFX-8000 and we hooked that up and it worked perfectly. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[dlagace]

sounds like the ribbon is screwy take the one out of the good one and try it in the problematic one.

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"What works for One person May not work for Another"
God Is My Judge

dLagace=DANIMAL

[3faze]

Is it doing bidirectional printing?

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It's supposed to do that... and that... hmmmmm... probably not.

[IBDEWEY]

I'll try the other ribbon, but it worked fine right until I screwed with it and put the new right tractor feed in. It may be set for bi-directional printing through windows 98, is that what you meant?

[Hippie_Techs]

It sounds like it is losing it's home position value. Try cleaning the encoder strip underneath the carriage bar (thin plastic strip with fine evenly spaced markings) near the carriage belt. The photo sensor for the strip is attached underneath the printhead. A lot of times the sensor or the strip will get dust and/or paper particles accumulated on them and cause this problem. It's either that or the paper width sensor located on the ribbon mask.