HL-2280DW paper feed not working

I left a comment on @jermn 's reply but wanted to share some pictures to accompany the text. Jeremy's approach worked for me; I found his suggestion to open up the side especially helpful.

I, too, broke the tab while trying to fix the issue. So, I proceeded to open up the side of the printer. I found a metal clip that forces the white piece to disengage when you pull out the paper tray. If you insert and remove the tray while the side is open, you can see this in action. This seems extraneous ... why not keep the white piece, and thus the gear, always engaged? Since I broke the white tab I figured the white tab will get out of position again in the future. So, I disengaged the metal clip, snapped the white piece into position so the gears are engaged, and replaced the cover.

Side view, after disengaging metal clip:

View from inside the paper tray slot:

The printer seems to be working like a charm, and I've got clear steps to follow in case it gets out of position again.

It works!

@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...

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.

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 pliers
• 1 hex wrench or any 5mm iron rod
• lighter
• protective glasses
• gloves

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!

15 minutes

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!

My crude fix for the feeder cam lever failure was to use a small block of wood to keep the lever engaged all the time. I drilled a small hole through the front wall of the printer frame, through the small wood block and then through the feeder cam lever itself. The screw keeps the wood block in place and also prevents the cam lever from sliding on its post. I’m not concerned about the rollers activating with the paper tray removed as I don’t have children who might stick their hands (or other things) in there. I chose this option rather than having to replace the poorly designed cam lever repeatedly. Thanks to the comments in this post which inspired this “fix”.

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...

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.

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!

I just replaced the little white plastic feeder piece (the little hook part broke off of mine) and when I went to turn it on to test it it showed "Print error EC" message on the front and said to turn the printer off and on again. I turned off and on multiple times but it keeps showing the error code. It doesn't make the normal whirring noises it usually does at startup. What did I do wrong? And how do I fix it? I was so proud of myself for potentially fixing this problem and now I'm sad again... :(