I've been playing with my planet motor disabled since one of the gears stripped a couple months ago. Tonight or tomorrow I'm going to finally dig into this and send it out to Pinball Resource. Can the bracket that holds the rings and planet be removed from the top side so you can pull the main driveshaft out through the bottom?

Yeah I plan to strip it down to the gearbox I just thought it might be easier to do once it was out of the machine. Also the wires for the planet have already been cut under the playfield from when this unit was serviced before, so I planned to just undo the wire nuts and pull the lights up from the top.

Is this top nut supposed to come off? Because mine is totally fused on and will not budge, if I try to apply any real torque to it the gears start to spin. Seems to be the only way to disassemble this thing but I'm not sure how to hold the shaft without damaging the threads.

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Yeah I hit it with some PB blaster and I'm going to go ask our machinist if he has any clever ways to hold that shaft, he always enjoys a challenge.

That clip was on mine, I just removed it already to get a better look at the bottom and make sure the threads weren't stretched or marred. I'd be happy to take any other pictures anyone needs while I have this apart. I disabled the diverter and crane so the game is still playable while I have this out, I'm in no real hurry to get it back in.

He had a collet block I was able to use on the bottom to keep the shaft from spinning. Problem solved, thanks for your help.