Chosen Solution
I have a Brother 2280DW workhorse of a printer. I love the wireless/scanning/duplexing features, but am wondering if this problem is fixable. The paper starts to feed and then never quite gets grabbed coming out of the paper tray. It doesn’t jam, it just doesn’t feed. When I feed manually, the printer works fine, but that is a royal pain! I have tried cleaning all the rollers underneath - in back and front. Other suggestions?
I had what sounds like the same exact issue as you, so hopefully the solution is the same. No amount of cleaning the rollers or tinkering would fix the problem. In fact, it seemed like the feeder rollers weren’t spinning at all. I dug up the service manual online and proceeded to take everything apart until I could get to the gearing and have a look for anything out of place. Solution: There is a small plastic lever that is used to lift/lower a gear in order to start and stop the feeder rollers. This lever can come out of position such that it can no longer wedge beneath the gear, and instead pushes against the side of the gear. Thus, the feeder rollers will no longer work. Fortunately, the problem exists in a place that requires no disassembly.
- Remove the paper tray.
- Facing the printer from the front: Immediately to the left of the paper tray slot, there is a small hole (Circled in RED) with a white piece of plastic visible through it (Squared in BLUE). This white piece of plastic is the lever we need to put back into position. If it looks like in my photo, it’s where it should be. If you see less of the white plastic, it is out of position. Before step 3: Notice the curved slot (Underlined in YELLOW) directly beneath the hole where the white plastic lever lives. There is a very small clip/hook on the lever which is supposed to rest in this slot, keeping the lever from dislodging and causing the very issue we are having. If you look into the slot, you should be able to see the clip. When I did this fix, this clip broke because I was impatient. You will need to gently flex the clip up (toward the top of the printer) while following step 3, so that it seats correctly in the curved slot.
- With some small pliers/needle nose, grab the white plastic piece as seen in the image and gently but firmly pull it toward the right side of the printer (BLUE arrow). It should slide into the correct position, and the small clip should latch into the slot, hopefully stopping this from ever happening again. If you fail to flex the clip up, it will press against the inside of the printer’s casing and snap off. – If the clip breaks like mine, it’s not the end of the world. You’ll just be more likely to need to do this simple process again in the future.
- Slide the paper tray back in and give it a whirl. Hopefully it works for you.
@jermn, You Sir are the mvp. This worked like a charm. I had been frustrated for a whole year. I resulted to the manual paper feed until I decided to do a google search again today. Jar Jar Binks here broke the hoke with all the warning. I crafted a paper clip to hold that white plastic in place. @melanieh , thank you for posting this question. I would never have found Jeremy’s solution without your post.
My story: I followed Jeremy’s advice and ever so slightly chipped the white plastic piece. (Note: the little hook that slides in the channel is VERY fragile!) Not willing to give in to defeat, I then removed the side panel. It’s only one screw, accessed in the back of the machine. Pull the duplex cover down and you’ll see the one screw that holds the left side panel on. After removing the screw, carefully unclip the other connections. I found it easier to remove the panel when I let the side of the machine dangle off the edge of the workbench. Once open, I pushed the lever back in place and made sure the spring is attached properly. Positive test!!! For now, the printer is working great again. (And yes, it is a workhorse.)
Probably is too late to add this, but I also found this video regarding this issue with the HL-22 Series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuuWmqSA…
REASON See answer from Jeremy N to understand what happened. I’ll make references to his post. But the true reason is the planned aging. This clip and curved slot have no any other meaning than be broken after few years, when the plastic will be dried and fragile. Then, clip breaks easily and disconnector latch will be permanently moved out of position, making printer dead. Proofs: To keep the latch in the position, all you REALLY need is to add small screw to the rod, not a clip, not a slot etc. Small screw or even small piece of plastic on the tip of this rod.Spring is designed in the way that instead of keeping latch in position it is trying to PULL the latch on the left, slowly destroying the clip. HOW TO FIX PERMANENTLY REMOVE LEFT COVER Two latches, square (on Jeremy’s picture) and round above. You’ll need to pull cover down and then to left side. You can’t remove it completely, but can get enough space for all the next operations.
BREAK AND REMOVE THE TIP Remove the tip, we don’t need it and don’t want to let it stuck somewhere. We will fix the latch on our own PREPARE TO MELD THE PLASTIC Find 2 pliers1 hex wrench or any 5mm iron rodlighterprotective glassesgloves HEAT THE IRON ROD Take iron rod in one pliers and start to heat the tip of it with lighter. 20 seconds should be enough.
MELD THE PLASTIC You MUST hold the hot iron rod with second pliers around the middle. Put the tip of the hot rod against of plastic rod tip and push it down. Strictly vertically. You need to form T-shape plastic end. Do this in a few steps, check that latch still can move after every step and check how much space left. 1mm of free space to move latch on the rod - this is what we want to get.
SAFELY REMOVE ALL HOT ITEMS Once finished, put hot rod under running cold water to cool down CLEAN THE PLASTIC ROD Scratch the melt tip with the knife, remove plastic particles and strings
ASSEMBLE PRINTER Put the left cover back, don’t forget to pull it down to set in position. DONE! TIMELINE 15 minutes
Hello Jeremy & Co. I’ve been waiting for a day to patiently take the printer side off and tackle this problem - today! I’ve followed the excellent trail of breadcrumbs offered by @jermn and @erichmusick, but seem to be missing a few things…
- There is no metal coil/spring.
- My white plastic part appears to be broken - among other things the square bit of plastic to appear in the small front window is round, and I don’t see any tab on it sturdy enough to engage levers. Does anyone know what this piece is called? Lastly, I see a small circular mount (the 0 of it faces the side, so it’s horizontal from front) - does the white piece pivot on that or is it irrelevant? Incredible the lengths we’ll go to avoid dumping an old printer in landfill! Many thanks, Mel
Great post, thanks for sharing. Use many of these methods and tactics myself. Personally I like focusing on back links from secure sites.Thanks for sharing this content. I have been using many of these techniques and having success with them. There are a few you mentioned that I will test out also. I’m looking forward to implementing these.
There are really nice people out there who invest time to help others out! I was able to fix our printer. I work for a nonprofit so not wasting money is important philosophically and practically. Thank you! thank you! thank you!
Another thanks to JeremyN for salveging my HL-2270DL. In my case, the white plastic lever had somehow slipped off the shaft that it rotates on when the paper tray slides into position. I removed the left side cover (two “hooks” in front-(one behind the toner cartridge door, the second to the left of the circle on Jeremy’s picture in Step 4) - the second behind the rear door) and removed the circular drive motor and gear (slightly lift the black tab holding the shaft and pull it up) to give me more room. I removed the clip spring, then replaced the loose plastic “lever” onto its shaft, making sure that the lift tab was under the shaft gear. Replaced the spring, then pressed the lever tab to see the shaft gear engage the drive gear. Replaced the drive motor, replaced the side panel and plugged it in. Works like new!
I usually clean the feeder parts that are made out of rubber, one to twice a years. I use a light wet cloth for that.
hello please follow the answer link for that no paper feed error that you are experiencing https://help.brother-usa.com/app/answers…
C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\OPrint\OPrint-DocuCom PDF Driver\1.urf Out of paper error leading me to this most helpful post. I tried Jeremy’s fix but the white lever clip broke so it didn’t hold in place. So I proceed with removing the left side cover as per instruction above. My fix was I put a tiny rubber o-ring over the shaft of the pin that the white lever pivots on, after I remove the motor by unclipping the tab of the motor to give me more maneuverability. I supposed I could use a bit of hot clue on to seal it in place, but the rubber o-ring was tight enough to hold the white lever clip in place when the tray is pushed in, so that the feeding mechanism is working again. Thanks, Jeremy!
Does anyone have a similar fix for the duplex function? I have the HL-2270DW and the regular printing feed is fine, but if I try to print duplex the printer begins to suck the sheet back in, but then can’t suck it in more than halfway. At that point it gives up, spits out the paper with only one side printed, and declares “duplex jam.” Then I need to open and close the back cover and press “go”–at which point it attempts the duplex print again, fails again, etc. I have to unplug the printer to reset. Any ideas why the printer can’t quite grab that page back in? Thank you!!
Found the printer by trash bin. Picked it up, it doesn’t feed, otherwise worked fine. I found it easier to disasemble side - one screw and about 5 minutes of brain exercise to unlock two pins holding the cover get the job done. Now its again fully functional printer! Thanks!
Jeremy and Mel, thank you! Another printer feeding paper again. I was able to use the “front” method, pulling the plastic tab out of its hiding space. I should have googled and found this sooner. But of well, spent hour or more on Brothers info and cleaning tips [repetitive attempts because that’s what I try], and then half hour on phone with Brother support which didn’t help until we then just got cut off, and he [the rep] did not call me back!
thanks for all the in put in this topic . i bumped in to this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucvEZ-l5… which has almost ultimate solution for the feeder cam lever sliding out to cause paper feeding problem. the video is not in English some cc in the beginning but very extensive demo! hope this helps all!
If the hook at the end of your white plastic piece is broken, based on the video above, the replacement part is LY2579001 I fixed my HL-2270DW printer but broke the hook at the tip of that piece. I ordered a replacement from ebay for ~$3. Ships from China, expected to arrive in ~3 months.
Thank you and Sweet Baby Jesus! I have a 2270dw — and it stopped feeding paper last week… with COVID-19, shelter-in -place, and teach-from-home in full swing.
Last Friday, when I first read the instruction and looked at the picture, that little white piece escaped me… it was completely out of sight until I broke out the flashlight and peered inside. Tweezers did the trick. Of course, I managed — and don’t know how — to break a piece on the toner cartridge… but hopefully that’s all I broke. THANK YOU!
Hi. I had this problem but it didn’t completely fix my issues. Issue 1: Yes. The white plastic thing was bust and I was able to fix so thanks for that. Issue 2: The paper would feed but only if there were only a few sheet in the tray. If the tray was full it wouldn’t feed. Without going through all the diagnosis the: Answer is: there are two feed rollers that are on the printer (not the tray). Remove the rollers (it is do-doable just figure out how it’s all clipped together). Remove the grey rubber from each roller. Wrap about 10 cm of sellotape on the plastic rollers then put the rubber things back on. Issue seam to be that the grey rubber things have worn down a bit and their thickness isn’t quite as much as it should be.
I fixed the same problem on my MFC-7860DW with ordering that small plastic part above from China on Ebay (less than $4, took 1 month to arrive). I followed this video to put in the plastic part: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcZ5gF0t… The only thing not clear on the video is that you have to put the small hook part into the notch so it can function well. Tried a few tries to understand. The view of the fixed piece can be seen from tray side like this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13ojo4LD… Thank you for your information!
Another success for a not so handy person. Almost ordered LY3058001 (the paper feeder kit) but found this post. at first did not even see any white plastic piece (LY2579001 Feeder Cam lever) mentioned by Jeremy. https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/ig… then with help of this picture found it completely snapped inside https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/ig… Had lots of trouble trying to pull it out. finally used a dental hook pick and pull it out. The tip of the white plastic is broken so it cannot be placed in the hooked slot. But carefully slide the paper tray back and it worked! For long term fix I will order LY2579001 and replace it remove left side C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\OPrint\OPrint-DocuCom PDF Driver\1.urf and useful videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcZ5gF0t… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucvEZ-l5… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuuWmqSA…
Wow, thank you all for this post. It really helped me fix my printer I almost gave up on!
