Epson 9880 Stuck on Power Clean Cycle

Open Discussion
1

I have an Epson 9880 that is stuck on the power clean cycle.

I turn on the printer, accept non-Epson cartridges and the display immediately reads “Cleaning”.
It usually reaches 7% or so and asks me to raise the levers, then a while later to lower them.
After lowering one of several things happens. Sometimes it will give an empty cartridge warning, although it does not indicate which one. Sometimes it resumes cleaning but starts from 0% again. Once in a while it will say paper isn’t loaded properly. The highest percent I’ve seen is in the 20’s.

There is a second and perhaps related issue. The left lever sensor seems to be failing. When I push it down it wasn’t registering the change. At first I wiggled it a bit and it would eventually read. Now I’ve removed the left cover and pushed on the sensor lever. Now I’ve resorted to manually connecting the jumpers on the sideboard when it isn’t and is engaged. I make this match my raising and lowering of the lever.

Here’s what I’ve tried so far.
Shimming the ink tanks
Resetting all the chips -this seems to be the fix for the empty cartridge error
Changing the mainboard battery

Any suggestions?

2

Follow these steps: How to cancel the Initial Fill process on Epson Printers | InkjetMall

best,
Walker

3

I actually found the issue. The issue was caused my the defective lever sensor on the left tanks. I made sure to match the timing of when I manually triggered the sensor and when I raised an lowered the lever. When I synchronized the sensor and lever movement, the clean cycle finally completed. Any tips on where to find a replacement sensor?