HP Original Toners

Maintenance Kit

Fuser

Spares

HP P4014 and M601 Series Paper Feed Solenoid RK2-0270.

This is the solenoid that mounts next to the paper pickup drive assembly and releases the cam controlling the paper pickup action. The paper feed Z shaft lowers and the pickup roller RM1-0036 makes a turn to push paper towards the feed-separation pair RM1-0037.

The part is quite simple, a coil on a former with a spring loaded armature across the top. In this case HP ship it with a length of yellow wire ending in a flying socket. The armature ends in an upwards hook. The hook latches against a flat surface on a cam until the solenoid operates and releases it.

The solenoid mechanism is simply a coil inducing a magnetic field in the iron of the former and armature. If they are not subject to excessive duty or an overvoltage they don't go wrong. There is more below on why you might try replacing a solenoid.

The solenoid is held in place by one screw and a locating pin. However getting at it means taking the printer top and sides off. Diagnosing a fault might suggest removing the pickup drive - at least to see how it works - although the solenoid could be changed without that.

The paper pickup assembly that the solenoid drives is RM1-4532.The rollers being driven are RM1-0037 and the same shaft drives RM1-0036 which is a simple round roller that lowers onto the page when the solenoid fires.

HP say:

RK2-0270-000CN - Tray 2 pick-up solenoid - Mounts on the paper pick-up drive assembly

RK2-0270

HP give the full part number as RK2-0270-000CN. The part number has the Canon form, so there it would be RK2-0270-000. The "-000" extension suggests there are no variants for this part. Icecat gives an EAN/UPC code of 5704327908364 but says its is "SOLENOID (TRAY 3)" which might be an incorrect HP data feed - however tray 3 and onwards might use the same solenoid.

HP Partsurfer explicitly says this part is used in the P4014, P4015, P4515, Enterprise 600 M601, M602, M603 and in all the variants (N, TN, DN, X, and XH). (In July 2013). the part is similar to that used in the LJ 4200 and predecessors but apparently not identical. No functional equivalents are suggested.

We don't think this part is the source of much trouble in current printers. Web research in 2013 throws up lots of prospective suppliers, but few people discussing faults that were resolved by changing this solenoid.

This type of part has been known to pose problems in the past. When the solenoid de-energises there is some residual magnetism which is overcome by mylar or in this case a foam strip. Over many thousands of operations the anti-residual strip develops a hole or denatures and the solenoid timing is sufficiently wrong to cause double feeds.

Supply Situation

In July 2013 two UK distributors listed the part at about £10 but neither had stock. We presume that one distributor who carries parts from decommissioned machines has had stock but may have sold them - suggesting a small demand. eBay had a couple of vendors selling them - one at £ 24.

We would expect to be able to source one of these within a couple of days.

Copyright G & J Huskinson & MindMachine Associates Ltd 2013, 2015, 2016. Some pictures derived from HP User and Service guides. These technical pages do not constitute an offer for sale; just our knowledge at the time of writing. See the catalog. Sales pages on this Web site use cookies to store user information. We also use Google Analytics to track site usage patterns.