Digital BW, The Print

Hi, 

Perhaps this issue has been addressed in the past, but I'm hoping 
that someone can help me.  I bought a used Epson 1160 a while back.  
I have put MIS Quad VS carts into it.  I would like to install a CIS 
but I need to see if I can solve this problem before investing the 
time and money.  

The printer makes great prints and has perfect nozzel checks.  The 
only problem seems to be that ink keeps getting on the small rollers 
closest to the print head.  I can clean them, but then while making a 
print, more will splatter onto them and they will leave smeared ink 
trails across the paper.  Sometimes this is worse than others, but I 
have never had a perfectly clean print.  Is this symptom indicative 
of a solvable problem?  Any help will be much appreciated.