Received what seemed to be a working ImageWriter II. Printed a whole (small) banner with a black ribbon. Tried again with a color ribbon a few weeks later, and found that the printer could not reliably keep its printing area aligned from line to line. No matter what I try, I get a "wobble" in the margin on the left and right, and eventually the print head is horizontally misaligned enough for it to stop printing and start blinking the error lights.
I've tried adjusting the color ribbon adjust ring, but I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing.
I've tried gently moving the print head left and right and note that over some parts of the bar, it slides smoothly and easily; over other parts, it seems to be a bit harder to move. Might this be something that some WD-40 or Super Lube could fix?
The problem was even worse earlier in the night, before I started fiddling with the color ribbon adjust ring, horizontal placement of the pin feeds, re-seating the color ribbon, etc. The printer could manage 2-3 inches at most of horribly "wobbly" printing, then stopped and flashed the error light, making some really gnarly sounds in the process.
Here's before I started fiddling:
Here's after. This is generally better, but note that the left and right borders are still "wobbling" a bit, and then things go absolutely to pot in the last couple inches. It tries to print bits of the margin way off into the tractor feed area of the page... and, again, after screwing up enough times, or bad enough, it stops printing and flashes the error light.
I would be very appreciative if anyone has any tips for fixing this issue!