Mutoh Falcon Jr. Pump Drive Shaft Repair Kit

Okay - I'm guessing that more than a few of you folks are like me - You are doing your own maintenance on your printers, and you order your replacement parts either via Ebay or via other support web sites. You've replaced your capping station. You've replaced your pump. Maybe several times.
 
But unless you buy a complete new maintenance station, if your pump drive shaft - the one that runs between the gears by the motor and the pump - gives up the ghost, you're out of luck. I know. I tried to do that a couple of weeks ago. Mine had either been exposed to solvent, or had just decided that it hated life, and the gear teeth were basically almost gone from the pump end (I'm thinking solvent...). I had all kinds of problems, because while the printer was making motor noises, the pump wasn't pumping, which meant the heads weren't cleaning, which meant I had output that looked like crap. Not good.
 
Anyway, I got together with a machinist friend, and we cooked up a replacement gear. You use your existing shaft, and it isn't difficult at all to install.
 
Now, you may notice there isn't a picture at this point - I put the thing in the printer, and unless Something Bad happens (and I've run most of a 50 yard roll of 30" wide media since I put it in, without a hiccup), I really don't want to pull the sheet metal and stuff off. My machinist friend and I are going to do a production run of the things in a few days, so this is basically taking pre-orders. That means that if you buy this as soon as I post this, it may take about a week or so before you get your gear replacement. I'll take a picture after we do the first production run.
 
We're using a good grade of aluminum, and they should last pretty well - at least a lot better than solvent-damage-prone plastic. The aluminum/plastic interface on your pump isn't going to be optimal, but you're going to have to replace the pump anyway every so often, and having one of these on hand may save you some serious downtime/cash. Since this just replaces the gear on the pump end, the gears at the motor end of the maintenance station won't be worn by the aluminum, so there shouldn't be any problems with the motor end. This can also be reused after you eventually buy a new complete maintenance station.
 
These may also work for the larger outdoor Mutoh Falcons (from what I understand, the shaft is basically the same, but longer - since this just replaces the pump-end of the shaft, it should work), but I cannot guarantee that.
 
We'll be doing free 2-day USPS Priority Mail shipping.