Overview Supplies Required Tools Required Disassembly Printing a Test Page Cartridge/Machine Troubleshooting

Remanufacturing the Minolta Color Pageworks Toner Cartridges. (Lexmark SC-1275)
0251

Overview

The Minolta Color Pageworks engine was first released in June 1997. It has been surprising in its staying power as it is still very popular. The engine itself is a 12ppm Black, 3ppm color 600 Dpi engine. The toner cartridges are very simple to do. They basically consist of a toner hopper and the developer roller. The developer roller has a sleeve similar to the Minolta SP-6 (Epson Action Laser 1500). The same care must be taken not to damage the sleeve, but other than that, they are very simple to do. As with most other color lasers, this machine uses a transfer belt unit. This belt takes the color/black images off the drum and transfers the finished image on to the paper. The transfer belt unit is rated for 100,000 pages.

Each color cartridge has a different fin location that only allows that color cartridge to go into the proper slot (See Figure 1). Because of this, as well as the fact that it is virtually impossible to get all the old toner out, we do not recommend that any cartridges be converted into another color. Minolta and Lexmark cartridges are not interchangeable. We have colorized the tabs so you can see the difference better

Each toner cartridge uses a fuse to tell the printer that a new cartridge has been installed. The fuse is a 5 x 20mm, 80mA 250V Fast acting glass type fuse. This fuse must be replaced each cycle. The two windows located on each cartridge are used to determine the toner level. The sensor is in the printer. It fires a light into the toner cartridge that is reflected back by a mirror inside the toner cartridge. The amount of light reflected back determines the amount of toner left.  A small LED also lights up which is reflected back by the cartridge shell. This determines if a cartridge is present.

The Lexmark cartridges are the:
1361751 Black 4,500 pages @5%
1361752 Cyan 3,500 pages @5%
1361753 Magenta 3,500 pages @5%
1361754 Yellow 3,500 pages @5%
1361750 OPC Drum 20,000 Mono, 5,000 Color pages @5%

The current Minolta cartridges are the:
1710437-001 Black 4,500 pages 5%
1710437-004 Cyan 3,500 pages 5%
1710437-003 Magenta 3,500 pages 5%
1710437-002 Yellow 3,500 pages 5%
1710438-001 OPC Drum 20,000 Mono, 5,000 Color pages @5%

The old Minolta part numbers are the:
1940-501, 0940-701, 0940-401, 0940-601

Machines based on the Minolta Color Pageworks engine are:
Lexmark Optra SC 1275
Lexmark Optra SC 1275n
Lexmark Optra SC 1275n Solaris
Lexmark Optra SC 5040
Minolta Color PagePro
Minolta Color Pageworks EX
Minolta Color Pageworks EX Plus
Minolta Color Pageworks L
Minolta Color Pageworks LN
Minolta Color Pageworks N
Minolta Color Pageworks Plus
Minolta Color Pageworks PS
Minolta Color Pageworks PS Plus

Machine and cartridge troubleshooting as well as running test prints are covered at the end of this article.

Supplies Required

• 160g Black toner

• 140g Cyan, Magenta, Yellow toner

• Replacement 5 x 20mm, 80mA, 250V fast acting glass type fuse
  

Tools Required

• Phillips head screwdriver

• Small common screw driver

• Phillips head jewelers screwdriver

• Spring Hook

• Vacuum approved for toner

Disassembly

1) Remove the fill plug. Dump out any remaining toner, and vacuum the chamber as clean as possible. See Figure 2

2) Remove the two very small screws on either side of the top with a Phillips head jewelers screwdriver See Figure 3

3) Remove the two larger screws from the top handle area. The top cover will come loose at this point. The spring loaded handle will also come loose. Be careful not to lose the spring. Remove the top cover and handle. See Figure’s 4 & 5

Figure 1	Figure 2
Figure 3	Figure 4

4) Lift up on the left side (non-gear side) of the developer roller cover and remove. See Figure 6

5) On the opposite side, release the spring from the cover. Remove the cover and spring. See Figure’s 7 & 8

Figure 5	Figure 6
Figure 7	Figure 8

6) Remove the two tension springs on either side of the developer roller. See Figure 9

7) Remove the three very small screws from the smaller green end cap with the Phillips head jewelers screwdriver. Remove the end cap. See Figure 10

8) On the opposite side, two very small and one large screw from the large green end cap. Remove the end cap. See Figure 11

9) Remove the developer roller assembly. Be very careful not to damage the sleeve, it is very fragile. Do not clean the sleeve with any chemicals; carefully wipe it off with a clean lint free cloth only. Be careful not to lose the drive gear or spacers. See Figure 12.

Figure 9	Figure 10
Figure 11	Figure 12

10) Remove the large double drive gear. This gear is easily lost. See Figure 13

11) Remove the two screws from the doctor blade. Carefully lift the blade up,(but do not remove) so that any remaining toner can be removed. Be very careful not to tear the foam seals attached to the blade. Clean any toner buildup on the edge of the doctor blade with a foam swab. It can be cleaned with alcohol, but make sure it is dry before re-installing. Also make sure not to drip any alcohol into the cartridge. See Figure’s 14 & 15

12) Re-install the doctor blade and two screws. Be careful not to damage the seals, and make sure the metal blade on the right side is making contact with the blade. See Figure 16

Figure 13	Figure 14
Figure 15	Figure 16

13) Install the cleaned developer roller assembly into the chamber. Be careful not to damage the thin plastic shims on either side of the roller. See Figure’s 17 & 18

NOTE: It is very easy to get grease from the gears on your fingers, and accidentally transfer it to the developer roller. Be very careful not to do this. If it does happen, the roller should be replaced. Cleaning it with any type of solvent, will most likely strip part of the coating off the sleeve, and cause print defects.

14) Install the large double drive gear. See Figure 19

15) Install the large end cap on the gear side of the cartridge and three screws. Make sure that the long plastic finger is over the developer roller tape tensioner. See Figure’s 20 & 21

Figure 17	Figure 18
Figure 19	Figure 20

16) Install the small end cap and three screws. Also make sure the long finger is over the developer roller tape tensioner. See Figure 22

17) Install the two large springs on the tape tensioners. See Figure 23

18) Install the coil spring on the end cap. See Figure 24

Figure 21	Figure 22
Figure 23	Figure 24

19) Install the developer roller cover onto both posts. Make sure the spring is engaged properly. See Figure’s 25 & 26

20) Set the spring on the top cover handle. Install the top cover so that the handle spring is loaded properly. See Figure’s 27 & 28

Figure 25	Figure 26
Figure 27	Figure 28

21) Install the two large screws on the top cover first and then the two small screws. See Figure’s 29 & 30

22) Fill with 160g black or 140g color toner. See Figure 31

23) Install the fill plug, check for leaks. See Figure 32

24) Install the replacement fuse by gently prying the two contacts up from the cartridge. Pry them up from the flat contact side, and lift up. If you pry them up from the post side, the post may break, making the cartridge almost useless. See Figure’s 33 & 34

Printing a Test Page

Make sure the READY light is on.

Press the “MENU” button until Utilities MENU appears on the display.

Press “SELECT”

Press the “MENU” button until either PRINT FONTS or PRINT MENUS appears on the display. Choose the page you want to print, and Press “SELECT”.

The chosen page will print out.

Cartridge/Machine Troubleshooting:

There is really not much that can go wrong with these cartridges. Most of the problems come from either the developer roller or the DR. blade. Streaking, shading, back-grounding...all can come from these two parts. Make sure they are clean, and not damaged.

Machine Troubleshooting
As with most machines these days, most of the error codes are in plain English. There are however, a few messages that are numeric. They are as follows:

920: Fuser error
930: Print head (laser) error
944-954: Controller card error
960-965: Emulation error
977: Network card error

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