Heater cartridge change problem
Guys, so I'm really in the dark here. My printer was jamming, so as being stupid as I am, instead of turning up the temperature significantly - I disassembled whole extruder to check the nozzle, the ptfe tube etc. These things were ok, but in the process of doing so, I broke the heather cartridge (if I am not mistaken?) cable and bought original new one. I wanted to change it, but now I have a problem that the heatblock isn't letting me take out the thermistor (heater element?). Ehh. Do I need to assemble it back again, turn on the printer, heat up these parts and then somehow switch the cables?
I'm just fed up with repair process, sorry if I'm being arrogant by how I attempted to fix it, I just didn't want to deep dive into all of this, printer was given to me as a gift. I'd be very grateful for helping me get this thing to the end.
RE: Heater cartridge change problem
I will assume that you undid the screw that clamps the heater in place. I have not changed a heater in this printer but in the past, it was just take the block and hold it tight while pushing on the end of the heater on a bench. You may have to CAREFULLY pry the gap just a little larger with a screwdriver. I have not seen anything about thermal conductive paste on these heaters. I needs to be a tight fit to conduct the heat properly.
RE: Heater cartridge change problem
I more or less went through the same during an MK3S+ upgrade I did - my only excuse is that the heater element was a few years old and I treated it as new and well, broke it. In my case getting the old heating element out was a problem because there was a lot of plastic melted holding it in. Getting to the locking screw was hard, but even when I finally got that out it took bending the heating block a bit and well, eventually I just realized I'd screwed with it too much and "had to pay the price":
I got a new E3D extruder with heating elements and temperature sensor. At the time, Prusa was out of them so I just got them straight from E3D instead.
There are plenty of kits where you just get a heating element and/or temperature sensor. Be VERY careful if you do this, not all elements are made equal, will not fit all heatingblocks and the same goes for the temperature sensor. I highly recommend just getting it directly from Prusa to ensure you have as few issues as possible. Advice - always have a heating element, temperature sensor etc. spare around (in addition to your spare nozzles). It really can save time and frustration to just be able to replace something when it breaks - regardless if your dumb actions caused the failure).