Digital BW, The Print

I'm in the midst of printing my Christmas books (about 750 8x8 prints 
from 200 or so different images, bound into 9 separate volumes for 
various family members) using my C84 with EZ inks - as I did last year.  
While not the fastest printer around, I can order up the number of 
copies I need of a particular print (not every volume gets the same 
images) and do something else for a while - couldn't do that in the 
darkroom :-) .  (I've been doing this process for about 20 years - when 
I did it "wet" I had to start well before Thanksgiving, and spent many a 
night standing up in the dark into the wee hours of the morning sloshing 
paper through chemicals.  Can't imagine ever going back to that.)

The images are printed landscape at the right end of 8.5x11 paper, which 
I eventually trim down to 8.5x9 to have a binding edge on the left.  
Anyway, yesterday the printer began to "nick" the top right corner of 
the paper at the end of the print during the last 20-30 passes (the left 
side of the printer, away from the head parking station.)  This ended up 
knocking the paper slightly out of alignment for the final passes, 
curling the corner and leaving a bunch of black ink there, effectively 
ruining the print.  I have enough room on the page that I have shifted 
the image about an inch away from the end of the paper, so the image 
finishes printing before the end of the paper comes out of the rear 
rollers, but now I'm going to have to make two cuts on each page instead 
of one.

Anybody know if this "nicking" is just an adjustment, or is it a sign 
that the printer is wearing out?  (I wore one out last year that had 
gone about 1500 prints but was still within the warranty period.  Epson 
seemed astounded that I had used one of these things that much.)  I love 
the convenience of the C84/EZ combination with the CFS, and assume I 
might just have to replace this one with the current equivalent - is 
that the C86 or the C88?  Anybody know if the CFS would just transfer 
over to one of the newer printers, or would I need a new one?

Thanks for any experience and/or advice.

Cheers,
Kip