Our service tech's take too long and the machine is too old to invest $175/hour so I would like to do it myself. I have a little experience with printer repair but I have never replaced a printhead on he Seiko ColorPainter 64s.
What do I have to do to line it up right and calibrate it after installing it?
You need the positioning tools to do this with out guesswork.
This is what I did.
With the machine turned off and un pluged:
Remove the plastic door/cover and get it out of your way. Remove Top cover plate to the heads, Unplug cooling fan connectors and remove cooling fan assembly.
Remove the ribbon connector and position out of the way for a clear line of sight.
Get a pair of hemostats and use masking tape to cover the teeth and clamp the supply line and remove. Plug or cap off the supply tube and remove the hemostat.
If your head carriage is dirty from ink and etc. you are in luck.
Using a metal scribe. scribe a reference line to the forward edge of the print head where the front screw is.
Remove the head and install the new one, using the scribe line as reference Before tightning the back mounting screw make certian that the head is at a perfect 90 deg alignment.
There is not a lot of play room with this and if you are off, you are off. Step back and look at it from multiple view points. If you can devise an alignment jig do it. (Home depot has small protractors in the tool section.)
The Scribe line gives you the front to back positioning, and the Left to Right can be adjusted in the maintenance mode.
I also use 2x reading glasses for magnification to do this for precision.
Reinstall the Ink supply tube (Make sure your O rings are in place first)and use your syringe to pull ink into the head from the side (short) tube. Reconnect ribbon.
Leave the cooling fan assembly and covers off for now.
At this point you will most likely have air in the supply line, but don't worry about this for now.
Power on the machine and in maintenance mode enter the head specific voltages, and then do a test print with the color stripe/band ON. This will reveal if the Front to back needs adjusting of if the head is not parallel to the other heads.
If adjustment F/B is needed you can slightly loosen the screws just enough so you can manipulate the position, and then re tighten the screws.
When you are satisfied with the position (Front to Back) now you can do a cap fill to remove any air from the supply line.
Turn off the printer. Clean up any residual mess, and install the cooling fan assembly, cover plate and door.
Power back on and make any needed L/R position adjustments.
.FWIW My Black print head was really bad. I pulled it and with the syringe I pushed acetone through the head 3 times and then used Flush 3 times to clear our the acetone. then removed the flush. I reinstalled and did a cap fill and let is set overnight.
I still have 4 clogged nozzles, but I can live with that.
I hope this helps, and if I have missed anything somebody please say so.
Sorry for the delay on my reply, lots to do in my job.
I will try to remove, clean and reinstall one of the heads tomorrow. If it is sucessfull I will repeat the procedure for all other heads.
What does the special tool look like and/or what does it do? does it line up the printhead towards the neighboring one? I have had a new black printhead installed by a tech a few days ago so I might be able to use it as a reference.
