DJ 130 - bubbles in yellow ink supply line - how to prime printheads

[little big man]

My DJ 130 has a bunch of bubbles in the long yellow ink supply line that trails the printheads, and the service manual talks about the secret-handshake method of button presses to re-prime the tubes.  The folks on HP's forum said I should not do this with printheads that are already primed as this ink needs to go somewhere and it would be a mess......anything known on how to unprime them so I can try and force the pump to prime the yellow ink tube?  The other tubes look great and inks are flowing well - wish I could just prime one tube.  I tried printing page after page of solid yellow, but the bubbles just sit there, mocking me.

Thanks,
Sean

[Ernst Dinkla]

My DJ 130 has a bunch of bubbles in the long yellow ink supply line that trails the printheads, and the service manual talks about the secret-handshake method of button presses to re-prime the tubes.  The folks on HP's forum said I should not do this with printheads that are already primed as this ink needs to go somewhere and it would be a mess......anything known on how to unprime them so I can try and force the pump to prime the yellow ink tube?  The other tubes look great and inks are flowing well - wish I could just prime one tube.  I tried printing page after page of solid yellow, but the bubbles just sit there, mocking me.

Thanks,
Sean

No views of the internals in the service manual that you could use to make an alternative ink flow. An old cart that can be used to bring some ink with pressure in the channel?

Of course the first thing is to find out why air got in that channel and then there is the question whether it makes printing bad.


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

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[Jofish]

For my DJ30, I took a syringe/hypodemic needle and broke off enough so that it was just long enough to penetrate the seal at the print head (any longer and you risk puncturing the line below it) and use it to draw off ink, or unwanted air, in the line.

Cheers!

[little big man]

I will have to spend some time tinkering with the line; I will try and find a needle to manipulate the contents of the line.  Someone on the HP forum disassembled their ink carriage with good results so here's hoping.

[little big man]

Finally got this working again - what I thought were air pockets ended up being dried ink in the tubes.  I disassembled the right side of the printer to the point where I could lift the ink supply station out and then I popped open the case of the yellow ink cartridge.  I squeezed the internal ink bladder in the cartridge a number of times to pump ink through the entire tube and then it would run back out into a bucket where the ink cartridge inserts into the line - lots of mess and sacrificed a cartridge, but have printed 40 feet this weekend with plenty of yellow and the line looks solid.  I don't know where the dried ink ended up precisely, but the printheads are apparently robust enough to handle my primitive surgery.

I appreciate the help!

Sean