20TH Fuser Drive Gear For HP LJ 2420

As laser printers continue to evolve, performance improves, and sometimes lower-level printers will “catch up” to the performance of higher-level models from just a few years earlier. A good example is the HP LaserJet 24xx series, where the most advanced model in this series, the 2430 (released in late 2004), has performance specs comparable to those of the higher-level 4200, released only two years earlier!

But as printer speed increases, so does the risk of mechanical difficulties, and the 24xx series also shares one of the common problems of the 4200 series: a tendency for the fuser drive section of the printer to become noisy as gears begin to wear. In the 4200 series, the solution is simple: replace the fuser (or just the main fuser gear) and the swing plate gear that drives it.

In the 24xx series, it is a bit more complicated: the fuser is initially driven by the printer’s main motor and drive train (as in the 4200 series), but then a special fuser motor, with a separate group of gears, takes over and drives the fuser from above. These parts are also responsible for driving the output rollers and initiating duplex operations.

All of the relevant gears are mounted to a plate called the Fixing Drive Side Plate Assembly (RM1-1500), though some are not included with it. The gear that initially drives the fuser is part of this assembly.

The gears above the fuser that mount to the plate are not: the 21-tooth gear (RU5-0377) the 20-tooth gear (RU5-0378), and the 19-tooth gear (RU5-0379). Liberty Parts Team has put together a kit (part number KIT-2400-GR-NN) that includes all of the above-mentioned parts.