Fixing Jams in an HP-5200 Printer

The HP-5200 has a series of ‘flags’ that track the paper through the printer.  If the paper fails to trigger one of these small plastic parts, with the correct timing, the paper will stop and a jam error will be provided.

There are a three flags, that I know of, in this system:

1. 1. There is a gray metal flap immediately behind the set of white rollers as one looks into the front of the printer with the cartridge removed.  Lift that flap to find a black piece of plastic (the flag) sticking up in the middle of the printer.  If you move the flag with your finger in the direction of paper movement (into the printer) then release it,  it should spring back to a vertical position.
   2. There is a similar flag in the middle of the printer just before the paper gets to the fuser assembly.  It too should swing back into place if you push it forward and release it.
   3. There is a third flap associated with the back of the fuser unit.

I have experienced two jam situations with these flags.

The first involved flag number 2.  Somehow the flag was forced out of position.  Fixing the problem involved putting the flag back on track using my fingers.

The second, and much more difficult, jam happened when the paper stopped just as it was coming out of the fuser.  Part of the toner fused properly, but part did not.  The line between those two situations is exactly where the paper stopped. After a lot of exploration, my printer tech found that he could hold down the flag (number 3) and the paper would smoothly move through the printer.  Clearly the flag was functioning ok.  The problem was that a small piece of plastic had broken off of the fuser assembly.  Apparently this snagged the paper, broke the timing and stopped the paper when it hit the flag.  The solution was to replace the assembly.  I found one for $130 from U.S. Printer Company – Altru Print RM1-2522-AP (RM1-3007) Fuser Kit.

Installing the new fuser involves:

1. 1. Remove the gray plastic cover that extends beneath and upward on either side of output tray, by inserting a finger in the hole and gently pulling it out and off.
   2. Remove the paper output tray by loosening two small screws, one left, one right.  The right screw is visible in the back of a square opening.  The left screw is not visible unless the tray is open.  It is under the white plastic arm that holds the tray.   This allows the tray to be lifted up and off of the machine.  If it doesn’t easily slide upwards,  loosen the screws more.
   3. Remove the old fuser assembly by removing two screws, not the obvious two, but two on the far left and right that attach the metal flap on the fusser assembly to the metal flap on the printer.  Once these are removed,  the old assembly can be removed and the new assembly inserted.
   4. Replace the two screws on the fuser assembly
   5. Put the output tray back into place and tighten the two screws that were just loosened
   6. Replace the gray cover removed in step 1.