STAGE 1: The Disassembly
First you will need some space to set the parts you remove from the machine. I usually have 3 main piles: Plastics (I put into the coin box), Ramps, and a container for the screws. In this detailed cleaning, we'll also have a 'pile' for playfield metal guides, rubbers, lamps, and posts. If you are not comfortable throwing all of the screws into a container because you may forget what goes where, re-screw them into their holes after you have removed what they hold.
When I finished, I had two sorta unique screws that I wasn't sure where they went. I ended up using them in the center plastic/airplane area. These screws are: Rounded head, phillips screw with star washer, short with same threads as all of the hex head machine screws used throughout the game for plastics. The second screw was a hex head screw with a phillips slot on top, it had a star washer and same threads as before. If you come across these two, be sure to remark to yourself where these two 'unique' screws go. (All the rest of the screws in the machine with this thread have a plain hex head, except for the two that hold the target to the captive ball railing, if I remember correctly).
You'll see how there are really only three or four different types of screws. Some for going into wood, into metal posts, through thick wood (longer ones), and tiny ones for ramps and pop bumper caps.
-Remove glass and backglass and set aside.
-Remove the 6 balls (some may be inside the idol).
-Remove coin box so we can put plastics in it later.
-Raise playfield.
-Unplug all in-wire connectors. Most of the connectors are from above the playfield, there are some from the under playfield tunnel and idol motor also. There's also a connector that comes from out of the rear of the playfield. I've counted 21 connectors that I unplugged on mine. As you unplug connectors that come from above the playfield, make sure that you will later be able to pull from above the playfield and these wires will come out. That is, clip any zip-ties and unwrap the wires from any clips that may impede the wire from being pulled through the playfield.
You may find it VERY convenient to, before unplugging a connector, number the connector. That is put the number on both the male and the female connectors before unplugging them. I'd use a thin felt tip marker and label each 1 through 21 as you unplug them. This way, when you plug them back in, you just have to match up '1 male' with '1 female' and '2 male' with '2 female' and so on. I had a little confusion when I finally finished and tried figuring out where all of the connectors go.
-Unplug the little two wire (red and white) connector from the little circuit board just under the right inlane. This connector is for the idol motor. Unwrap these two wires from the clip so that when we remove the idol motor assembly nothing will be grabbing this wire.
-Locate the solenoid that energizes the right ramp diverter. It's under the right ramp (under the playfield). It's a yellow coil number FL11753-1. Out of this coil is a metal shaft with a spring. This shaft is tied with another little spring to a part that 'screws' to the bottom of the ramp diverter piece. Locate and loosen the set screw in the side of this. It's a small allen (hex) screw which should be 'facing' the left side of the pinball machine. Unscrew this set screw so that we will be able to pull up on the metal ramp divertor later on and pull it out. (When we do so, this piece will fall down in the the cabinet).
You may be able to remove this part and spring right now, depends on how much force you feel comfortable in removing it. I said to 'let if fall' when you remove the diverter piece later, it will fall out without any resistance.
-Lower the playfield, leave it in the 'pulled out and latched' position.
-Unscrew the 'apron'. The metal part that covers the ball tough area. There should be four screws holding it down from above, and sometimes two more from the front. Set this aside. Put screws in a container or re-screw them in the holes if you are uncomfortable with mixing the screws. This will apply for now on with all screws.
If your apron screws also had washers, make yourself a little remark about it, mine didn't, but I think I've seen pins with phillip screws with washers.
-Remove the 3 metal pieces that the apron was screwed to. 11 hex wood screws. This will make it easier to completely clean the playfield. For now on, I'll be removing lots of parts people don't ordinarily remove, all for the same reason, a bare playfield will be so much easier to clean.
-Remove metal piece just to the right, in the ball shooter lane. 2 screws.
This piece protector piece for the right side of the shooter lane.
-Remove metal piece just to left of the ball shooter solenoid, 2 screws.
-So far I've been putting the pieces in the coin box. This is a good method of doing things, especially the plastics because it allows stacking of pieces just right. I'll throw the pieces in the coin box and they will pile up in such a way, that when I re-assemble the machine I just have to pick off the top of what's in the coin box. The pieces we take off first will be at the bottom of the cash box, so they will ultimately be the last things I put back on when I re-assemble the machine.
-Remove metal 'guard' piece on lower left side by the left outlane. 2 nuts.
-Remove the two gold colored rail ramps on left side.
-Sometimes, when unscrewing nuts the post underneath will unscrew from the playfield. You'll need to either use needlenoose pliers to hold onto the post while unscrewing the nut, or just unscrew the post with the nut and separate them, then put the post back for now.
-NOTE: My IJ doesn't have the German airplane installed. Just remove it now, or when we start removing ramps and plastics in that part of the playfield.
I will document putting the airplane back during re-assembly so don't worry about when to put it back on.
Two more 'unique' screws that I wasn't sure exactly where they were 'supposed' to go... There are many hex head machine screws throughout the game, I had ended up with two of them shorter than the rest. You'll see during re-assembly that I had put them in the left ramp top screw-down, and in the plastic just to the right of the left ramp entrance. You may want to make a special note to yourself if you come across these screws so you know where they are 'supposed' to go.
-Remove left slingshot plastic and any washers. (replace washers just like screws, if you are not comfortable with throwing them all into a container).
-For now on, when I say to remove a plastic, I'm assuming you're going to put it into the coin box.
-Remove the green plastic that was under far left rail ball guide you just removed.
-At top of playfield, remove the metal 'bridge' piece. There's two screws on top and one that's hard to reach on the lower side of it. Note, my IJ didn't have the lower screw installed.
-On left of mini-playfield, remove the metal ball path. 2 screws.
-Remove the green plastic on lower left of playfield (covers ADV targets). You have to remove two nuts, and the two wood screws. The two wood screws can only be unscrewed just a little and the plastic should lift out.
-Remove the ball path guide piece just to the left of the ADV targets.
-Loosen the tiny allen (hex) lock-nut that holds the mini-playfield to the mini-playfield motor shaft. Look at the top part of the mini-playfield. There are two hex nuts to loosen, loosen the one closest to the mini-playfield. The other hex nut holds a metal piece which moves back and forth between two opto switches (This is how the machine knows when the mini-playfield is tilted left or right.
-Remove two nuts that holds the lower part of mini-playfield to the playfield. These nuts are near the lower part of the mini playfield through a piece of metal that comes out of it. (see manual instructions for removing the mini-playfield if you're confused). Be careful not to put too much pressure on the motor shaft at the top of the mini-playfield assembly.
The manual stresses to 'not put too much pressure on the motor shaft' for the mini-playfield. I don't really think it's that big of a deal. It's a tough motor and I'm sure it can handle a little pressure.
-Carefully slide the mini-playfield toward the front of the machine. Once it comes out of the motor shaft, pull the mini-playfield out of the machine and pull up on the wires that come through the playfield (they should all be unplugged from earlier step)
-Unscrew the three screws in the inlane-outlane divider right by the left flipper. The screws have to come up about a half inch before the entire plastic piece can be removed. Remove it.
-Remove the right side metal ball rail-ramp.
-Remove the right side sling-shot cover plastic.
-Unscrew and remove right side inlane-outlane divider and 'last chance' return gate.
-Loosen two screws just to the right of the right outlane plastic, remove the plastic.
-Remove the lower pop-bumper cover (cap).
-Remove the 'Raise jackpot when flashing' plastic assembly in center of playfield. There's going to be a nut that's hiding under the green part of it.
-Remove the left ramp. Two tiny phillips screws in the front where ball enters the ramp and one screw in the rear which is obvious to see.
-Remove the plastic covering the 'start mode' saucer.
-Remove the plastic just above the 'start mode' saucer. The plastic that was underneath the mini-playfield.
-Remove the left and right pop-bumper caps.
-Unscrew and remove the plastic piece which screws into the right ramp which covers the ramp diverter piece.
-Pull up on the metal ramp diverter piece. Keep the washers with this piece, we don't want to misplace them. There should be two washers under the diverter's 'arm'.
-The part under the playfield should now fall down, be sure not to lose it when we re-assemble it. There should be a metal shaft that went into the coil. It should be attached by a spring to a piece that 'clamps' to the end of the divertor. The second part that fell is a spring that went around the metal shaft as it went into the coil.
-Remove the right ramp assembly. Three screws at the top, two mini phillips screws at the bottom and two regular screws at the bottom sides.
-Remove the V or U shaped metal piece just under the right ramp.
-Remove the two plastic pieces that were under the right ramp.
-Remove the left three INDY lane dividers. Just remove each set of dividers as a whole unit (two screws) and set them aside, it's a good idea to set them down somewhere in the right order. (ie. The one with the long post is far left). Don't put these in the cash box, just set them aside.
-Remove the metal flap that's covering the right side of INDY ball gate. (it's screwed into the back of the playfield)
-Remove the plastic just to the right of the INDY lanes.
-Remove the red 'light hood' that was under the plastic we just removed.
-NOTE: There's a hole under this fourth light hood for a general illumination lamp. But it looks like they tried saving a little money and cut this light out of production. (I've seen several INDYs without this lamp installed.)
-Remove the captive ball wire railing. One screw into the back playfield panel, and two nuts down in front by where the ball 'rests'.
Note: During re-assembly I wasn't sure if the screw that went into the back of the playfield had a washer or not. You may want to make yourself a note, I'll make a reference to this note below during re-assembly.
UPDATE: Remember that I have a regular production IJ which doesn’t have the ‘Lost Plastic on the rear wood panel of the playfield. I don’t know how much stress the following step will put on the plastic, so I just want to say here be very careful. If it appears it could crack the plastic, maybe we can figure out a better way of removing the captive ball rail-tube.
-Now, removing this part takes a little bit of force. Push back on the rear playfield panel just a little and pull up on the captive ball railing. It should pop out. The ball should also try to make a run for it (after years of captivity). Remove the opto assembly (we just unscrewed it with the two nuts) Remove the ball. The target in the back of the captive ball, behind the rear panel needs to be unscrewed from this piece. Two screws at the base of the target hold it to the railing. Unscrew them and let the target dangle in the rear of the machine. These two screws seem to be unique, don't get them mixed up with the rest of the screws. Remove the railing.
-Remove the green plastic in upper right corner of playfield. One nut has to be removed, and two screws need to be loosened a little.
UPDATE: This looks like where you would want to unscrew the Lost Plastic piece from the rear wood panel of the playfield. You might want to make a note of the types of screws it had to hold it on because I don’t know. It probably uses philips head wood screws.
-Remove the four screws into the idol assembly cover plastic. Remove the plastic (it is actually two plastics which were screwed together by one of the four screws we just unscrewed. These screws are black colored on my IJ, these are unique so I'm not mixing them also so that I remember to install the same black screws when I re-assemble.
-With the playfield pullout out in the latched position, you can stick your hand in the right side and pull down on the idol exit piece. With the idol exit pulled down, look in, under the idol's head in the area where the balls sit. There is a single allen set screw that holds the idol to the motor shaft. If the set screw isn't facing out so we can unscrew it, turn on the machine and let the idol spin until you can see the allen nut, when you see it, turn the game off so we can loosen this nut. Loosen this nut and pull up and remove the idol head. Its best to hold down the idol exit piece while unscrewing the set screw.
-Remove all tools and parts off the playfield and raise it up.
-Unscrew and remove the motor bracket for the idol motor. Don't panic, it's just three screws. Two on the inner side and one on the outer side (near the edge of the playfield).
During re-assembly I wasn't positive if these screws were phillips or hex head. Please make a note to yourself here (if it's hex or phillips).
-Now you should see a triangle of three phillip head screws going into the playfield which hold the yellow idol in place from under the playfield. Unscrew these three screws and make sure the idol piece doesn't fall when you remove the last screw. Remove the yellow idol part from above the playfield.
-Lower the playfield into the pulled out and latched position again.
-Remove the orange trim piece that was under the idol part. It's a good idea to re-screw the long 1/4 piece back into the thread. Otherwise, it's a common mistake to simply re-assemble it with a regular nut, and realize that this long piece should have gone there when we go to put on the idol cover pieces.
-Remove all rubbers (rings, posts, and flipper rubbers). Keep them if you plan on cleaning them and re-installing them.
-This is the end of normal dis-assembly.
The following will be the super-intensive disassembly description. I'm going to remove the pins and metal ball guides. This will make it much easier to clean the corners and cracks that's normally hard to get at when pins and metal pieces are still on the playfield. I'm starting a pile of 'metal pieces' now, and a bucket of pins and long screws that hold the pins in place.
The playfield is pretty bare right now. It is possible modify this document so you don't have to remove any more playfield parts. You will have to figure out where to pick up during the re-assembly process.
To help me remember what pins go where and with what long nuts, I've make a photocopy of the page from the manual that lists all of the pins and posts the machine has. Then I label each pin and post with a letter or number. Then I copied a page from the manual with a diagram of the playfield. I then mark where which pin and nut cam from. For example I label the lower pin for the right side of lower sling shot at 1A. The 1 refers to the long nut with threading on the top and bottom. The A refers to the "star post #8". I have a number/letter combination for every pin I take off. There are two more screws you'll need to draw into the diagram and label. One is a long phillips threaded screw like used in the slingshot pins and INDY lane dividers. The other is a long phillips wood screw also used in the INDY dividers.
You can find these manual pages plus how I used them on my web page.
-On the controlled gates at top of playfield: remove the little control spring from the armature. Just slide the loop of the spring off the gate's arm. Unscrew the two screws holding each gate to the playfield. The screws for the right one are tricky, but possible to remove. (I used needle-nose pliers).
-Remove all posts and pins that you can on the top side of the playfield as above instructions, write down where all different types of pins and posts go. There are three adjustable posts, one by each outlane and one by the idol exit, they have an additional nut on the underside of the playfield holding them in, unscrew the nut first or hold onto it with pliers when unscrewing the post. There are three posts in the captive ball area that are screwed into the playfield, they have a hex base that you can put a wrench to and unscrew, keep the washers under them with the posts as you set them aside. Without these washers, playfield wear increases when these posts get loose during game play. There is also another post you can unscrew with the hex base just to the left of the ENT drop targets.
-There are 8 posts which are held on by a nut and washer below the playfield, I'll take them off later, I'll say it below when I do. (The posts on each side of the ramp entrances and by idol lock shot. One by the captive ball area)
-Remove all lamps and flasher lights that come through the playfield (the general illumination lights and flashers). Don't forget the lights in the pop bumpers. Set these aside in a container.
-Remove all metal ball guides. Most are screwed onto the top part of the playfield with screws and bolted through the playfield with a nut on the underside. Remove all nuts and screws and remove all metal ball guides. This includes the metal rounded 'scoops' for the start mode and idol lock shots. There are some metal ball guides which are just thin pieces of wire glued into the playfield. I'm not removing these parts because they are glued into place and not a hassle to clean around.
For the metal guides that you have to raise the playfield and unscrew a nut and washer. It's a good idea to rescrew the nut and washer to the metal piece when setting it aside. I'll list the metal parts I have to unscrew from under the playfield here:
First the small metal piece just to the left of INDY lanes. There's one nut under the playfield holding it on. Remove it and the metal piece.
Metal guide piece just to the left of "Super Jackpot" light. One nut and washer below playfield. Remove them.
Metal 'wedge' piece just under right ramp. One nut and washer below playfield.
Metal guide piece on left side of right loop shot. One nut and washer.
Metal guide just to left of left outlane. One nut under playfield, no washer. Note removing this nut will also remove what holds the LEFT support arm for holding the playfield in the 'pulled out and latched' position. After removing this part, be careful as only one nut will be holding the support arm in place.
Metal idol exit ramp. Five nuts and four washers under playfield. Note one nut holds the RIGHT playfield support arm in place. From now on, be careful when raising the playfield as only one nut is holding each support arm in place.
-The remaining metal pieces can all be moved from the top side of the playfield. Note a unique short phillips screw on right side of playfield holding the long U shaped loop metal. Two unique flathead phillips holding the ball shooter lane metal "ramp". What the heck, I even removed the metal piece on the back panel of playfield (the piece that the right ramp screws to). Note the lower end of the ball guide on the left side of the shooter lane overlaps the INSIDE of the idol exit ramp.
-Raise playfield and remove the standup targets. There are two screws per target. There are 7 targets. ADV three targets. ENT One narrow target. URE three targets. Let them dangle below the playfield.
-There are 4 sling-shot blade switches. Two screws for each switch. Remove the screws and let the switches dangle below the playfield.
-Remove the under-playfield ball path for the lock shot to the idol. There are five wood screws and one 'machine screw'. I'd put the machine screw back in the hole after removing the part. When I tried removing the part, one of my opto's was wired intertwined with the other wiring in the machine. I had to temporarily remove the opto from the part, unwind it, and screw it back in so I could remove the part from the machine.
-Now, I removed the 8 posts which are held on by a nut and washer. I'd rescrew the washer and nut onto the thread when setting these aside. Remember to write down where each type of post goes on a diagram of the playfield.
-Unscrew the metal scoop that is for where the popper pops the ball from under the playfield to the Idol. The coil doesn't 'unplug' so let this part dangle under the playfield.
You don't have to let it 'dangle', you can tuck this part under the playfield wiring bundles so it won't dangle.
I am now finished with the disassembly process. Currently the only things on top of the playfield are the: flipper bats, slingshot kickers, pop bumpers, Idol 'release' gate, wire form ball guides (glued into playfield), mini playfield motor and optos, and the ball trough and shooter lane kicker.
You may choose, having gone this far, to even remove the above parts (the pop bumpers and ball trough will be an extreme pain in the rear). If you do, be sure to write down, similar to what I've done, so you can go in reverse of what you've written down to reassemble it later.
I started soaking the 'star posts' the yellow plastic posts for the sling shots etc. I threw them into a cup with hot soapy water.
Soaking the posts didn't really help. I still had to scrub the heck out of them when I cleaned them. (I describe this cleaning later).
The above took a couple nights of work.
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