HOW I SOLVED: CLEAR PAPER PATH ERROR ON SHARP AR5516

I had worried that either there was a small piece of paper stuck somewhere deep in the mechanism, or else that a part was failing. I could clear the error by opening and closing the right side panel, but as soon as another page printed, the same error would occur.

When the "Clear Paper Path" error reliably comes up on the AR5516 after one page has printed, the problem is most commonly with a small plastic arm inside the right side panel. The plastic arm may become dislodged during a paper jam, during moving, or other jostling. The solution is to gently force the small plastic arm in place. The reason this causes the error is that the very right end of the plastic arm tells a sensor the previous page printed OK. If the arm is bent or partially dislodged, the arm's end is not where it is expected to be, and so the "Clear Paper Path" error is flagged. Opening and closing the right side door temporarily fixes the error because the motion of the side door opening and closing will often (about 50% of the time) temporarily move the arm's end into place.