Oooooh this is just in time... I didn't have time to wash the harness from my Big Hurt rescue over the holiday, but I'll be trying it this week, maybe even tonight...!

Welp, I always knew this day would come...

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Friggin' Gottlieb and their tank-like build quality... when I removed the harness I simply unscrewed the mounting brackets from the PF, but damn... on Big Hurt at least, those brackets must weigh over 10 pounds combined! Took me another hour to remove them all and label the coils.

Actually the coils are probably the least of my worries because if the labels on all the Molex disconnects come off, I'm well and truly screwed!

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But, since I had to remove all the brackets and mount plates anyway, may as well throw 'em in and see what happens.

I do have one advantage though:

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Zee wife, zometimes zhe iz pretty kewl. Like tonight. See those dishes in the sink, they were in the washer pending a cycle... I took 'em out and piled 'em there. They can be bathed AFTER my harness is done. Our next meals might be pinball-seasoned! Mwuahaha.

We have a survivor!

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Thank Zeus, the paper Molex disconnect labels (Gottlieb probably put 40 of them on here) survived! Looks like the few casualties were the labels on the flipper coils - which were probably replacements and so used cheap paper instead of "masking wrapper" - and a couple other random coils. Most survived just fine. There's no trace of the coil paper in the washer (gone just like the paper labels on pickle jars and beer bottles ha ha). Only straggler parts in the bottom were a couple loom clips that slipped off.

But being the idiot I am, I forgot to ID tag the coil wires with blue tape. This is because I originally tagged the mounts / mechs / plates with Sharpie... only when I realized they were just collectively too damn heavy and bulky to fit in that top rack, the subsequent hour+ of removing them all pressured me for time and distracted me from remembering the tape. Instead I'd marked the coil ends with Sharpie, but that washed clean off the nylon!

Ironically though, the Sharpie did stay on the metal parts (as I originally intended), so hopefully I can puzzle this out with the manual.

If this were a WMS game no big deal since apparently WMS only knew like 5 coil specs ha ha... but I swear there's at least 20 coils on this GTB Big Hurt harness and not a damn more than two or three are alike

Anyway, at first glance I can say it was worth it: no more grimy coatings, no crusty dirt; the few leaf-style contacts look cleaner and the bulb sockets are especially brighter. I washed the coil sleeves in the utensil basket for the hell of it and they are much improved as well - not perfect owing to poor spacing, but I can manually clean them easily. They were in good shape so now I don't have to spend an hour comparing sizes and flanges and part numbers for a dozen different sleeves.

There's some trace crud in the washer but nothing a quick rinse cycle with a vinegar bath wouldn't handle.

10/10 would do again if I have to. Thanks Vid!