I wouldn't.

Clay's Sys 1 repair guides referenced above will absolutely walk you through everything you need to know to fix the machine. The problem is, people tend to skip over all of the stuff that is noted as "mandatory" and jump right in to trying to fix the problem at hand. Do each and every mandatory fix, then figure out what is going on (if anything at that point, as those often will fix a slew of wierd problems).

System 1's have a well deserved reputation for being a PITA because you *have* to do all this stuff first to really get a handle on things. Or you can end up chasing your tail for a long time.

Sounds like a plan. If nothing else you'll learn a ton of stuff in the process and things won't seem so daunting in the future. It doesn't really cost much $ to do the mandatory stuff, just a bit time consuming. If you are going to repin the connectors - and you probably should, I'd just bite the bullet and order new connector housings from Ed at GPE. Might cost you $10-$15 of unnecessary expense, but I think the time and frustration saved is priceless. I think one of the worst newbie experiences is trying to remove gottlieb edge connector pins. They never come out as easy as you'd think they should. Good luck!