Okidata ML-182 Carriage Troubles

That brings back nightmares of printers long gone. I won't ask why you're fixing such an old printer.

Ok, that's normal for an old printer. However, you're not done yet. If you look at the ends of the head traveler, you'll probably find a wad of accumulated crud on both sides. Use a small screwdriver or wooden stick to remove the accumulation. You might also find crud on both ends of the slider bar. With the power off, the head should move VERY freely, and slightly less freely with the cartridge inserted. If it drags with the cartridge inserted, there's some crud in the mechanism. Oil the moving metal parts, clean the moving plastic parts (no oil).

Yep. Make sure the track teeth are cleaned with a brush. Crud in the teeth will cause the head to skip a tooth.

While your at it, remove the head. There's a stamped metal "clip" on a pivot holding the head in place. Release the clip and pull the head straight up. Look at the bottom of the head and you'll see a felt pad. That lubes the head pins. Clean the head and saturate the pad with oil. If the plastic ping guides look warn, it's time for a new head.

Yep. Too much friction. Probably the ribbon cart.

Have no fear. The ribbon is not part of the lube system. See previous description for removal and cleaning of the head. The real danger of running the head like that is that the paper and ribbon protect the patten. You can easily punch holes in the rubber patten by printing without paper. The lever on the head assembly controls the head position for different paper thicknesses. Pull it back away from the patten for now. Normal is all the way forward.

Anyway, you ribbon cart is gummed up inside. Spin the knob on the cart and see if it drags. There should be a little friction, but not so much that you have to use force to turn the knob. New carts are still available.

So much for that theory. There might be some crud in the head mechanism that adds additional friction. One odd source is the clear plastic paper guide and thin metal thing that straddles the head. These get covered with crud and tend to drag on the paper or patten. When you have the head removed, also remove these and clean them. If the diamond shaped hole in the metal shield looks mangled, try to straighten it.

The last time I saw an ML-182 was perhaps 10 years ago. As I recall, they were not the best quality construction. The ritual repair was the same for all such printers.... tear it apart and clean everything.

A new Oki ribbon cart might cure your problems. I've seen these used in pretty crappy conditions and tolerate it well. I've serviced more than my fair share of the 182s / 390/391/590/591 Microline/Turbo 9 pin head printers to last several lifetimes. They are the workhorse still for those who need an impact printer.

Hi!

Because it fulfills a need (sort of) and because I can. You didn't ask, but now you know. :-)

It's not a big deal. I have an IBM ProPrinter XL24E with a network adapter hanging off of the parallel port. The Okidata unit could be a backup in case the IBM goes down (yeah, right!) or I could put different paper in it.

I find the impact printers very handy for reasonably fast, low cost printing of text reports. When using a draft font, they are very quickly. I've been given boxes of suitable paper over the years, which only drives the cost down that much further. Sometimes I still have a need for doing two part forms, and nothing else quite comes close for that application.

It's really remarkably clean. I did find some scrunched up paper and "holes" at the edges, all of which are now gone.

The head does move freely without a cartridge installed, although it has more resistance at each end of its travel that I think it should. With the cartridge in place, there is more resistance. I guess I'll have to pop it out of there and have a look to see what might be changing to hold it up.

That track is very clean, with no obvious signs of damage or missing teeth.

It's a brand new Dataproducts ribbon. The old Okidata ribbon only behaves slightly differently, so I don't feel that finding an Okidata cartridge would be a worthwhile endeavor.

I have not printed without paper, and I did think to back the head position out almost to the end of its travel. I will not try to print without paper. And I will take the head out to examine it. I may also pull the entire assembly (so long as it is not risking disaster to do so) to see how that little motor looks and if maybe it is gummed up.

My new cartridges seem to be fine in this regard.

I was always really happy with the first one I had. It was a workhorse, although it was no IBM ProPrinter. I had to finally retire it when the print head started to malfunction. No amount of cleaning would help it, and eventually the missing lines got so bad that the output was unreadable.

The only dot matrix printer I ever had that was truly awful was a Panasonic KX-P2123. I actually bought it as a replacement for the Okidata, but the tractor feed was so unreliable that the Okidata went right back into use and the Panasonic went away.

William

I'm partial to the 320/321 series of printers. I still have customers using them to pound their way through as many as 5 part forms. Some of these have been in service for at least 15 years. All I do is clean them about every 6-9 months. The 9 pin heads seem to do better and last longer than the much thinner 24 pin heads. However, I'm constantly replacing the serial i/o board on all Oki printers, usually due to ESD or power glitch issues. Also, people with long finger nails tend to puncture the front panel controls.

Yeah I've swapped those also. The worst case scenario was two 320s (how'd I forget to mention these) in a steel fabricating plant shipping office. Although they required weekly cleaning for the most part were surprisingly reliable. I swear those things would run in a mud puddle. And they were used 24 hours a day for triplicate forms.

One 321 the front office (a lot cleaner) same plant ran green/bluebar all day long and you could almost light a cig off the printhead. Yep, kickbutt printers and I still have a bin full of salvaged parts from when I would strip down pulls.

Jeez, I haven't seen one of those in decades.

Try winding the ribbons by hand to verify that the ribbon moves easily & isn't jammed up with age. Assuming that they're okay, you just need to clean & lubricate all the moving parts on the head assembly. I recommend a tiny squirt of WD-40 on the front & rear armature bearings of the motor. You can 'work' the mechanism safely by turning the printer off & moving the carriage left & right by hand. It should move freely, even with a ribbon loaded.