Kodak ESP 3250 copier

hit it with a phonebook, maybe that will unstick it.

Sounds like the grease has hardened and jams some locking mechanism. Someti mes trying carefully to move the carriage both sides it may unstuck after a while. If you could see the latch or some moving part in that zone a drop of oil might help. Also some printers use a latch that is detached by a sma ll movement to the opposite direction.

If only someone had taken a pic of that area, under or behind the carriage, I could perhaps fashion a joggled probe and fiddle. I can lift the top cover enough to see the leftmost edge of the carrier and nothing hooklike there. I was wondering if it was some latch that was under Software control , unlatched in POST but they don't use batteries these days , that could run down in 6 months

Looks like gummy ink problem. I unclipped the ink cartridge carrier that contains the printhead, contacts to the right in pic, purpley colour is ink

I've now got to the problem area. The final cog to the rack that moves the cleaning carriage is binding in too tight in a small housing around it, plastic against plastic, either plastic on plastic " bearing" or plastic sides of cog against plastic housing, presumably chemical reaction with the ink or time. It will just about turn with parallel jaw pliers but that force would jump teeth farther back along the gear chain, let alone driving by motor force. So what squirted in there will dissolve the compaction or whatever. Moving by hand via pliers , has not eased up on a couple of traverses.

kill or cure time. I squirted some PTFE lubricant spray in where the cog/rack tooth engages. Now rack is moving with the lightest of finger turning of the cogs, will it still be free to move tomorrow? a few months down the line? The relevant spot is on the underside , so I doubt you could squirt in-situ , without dimantling

must be all this Scots stuff about. Third attempt , at reposistioning the cleaning carriage in the different parts of its cycle , to get it copying again.