Disk drive cleaning and restoration efforts - part 1

CONVERTED RUST ON MOUNTING POLE AND SPRINGY STEEL PIECE

I pulled off one of the poles that had rust pitting and the springy steel piece that holds the cartridge entry pivots. They had serious rust damaged. After cleaning and wire brush removal of loose rust, I applied some Naval Jelly to convert the rust to a safe alternative. I still need to do the other side, plus the screws are still rusty. 

FURTHER CLEANING OF THE DISK ARM AND HEADS

I did some more cleaning of the disk heads and arm, finding more evidence that there is no corrosion on these critical components. I used 99% pure isopropyl alcohol on lab tissues to clean off the surface of the two heads. They will need more work with cotton swabs and IPA before they are really clean, but I can already see that while they show signs of some wear they are not damaged beyond use. 

Arm material is in good condition

Lower head seems in decent shape

View of upper head shows no obvious damage

OPENED FILTER BOX, DISCOVERED MAJOR RODENT HOUSING DISTRICT

There is a plate on the bottom of the drive which encloses the HEPA level air filter and plenum which produces air clean enough to blow past the heads while they are flying over the disk surface. Considering that a typical dust particle is many times larger than the flying height, cleanliness is essential. 

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but this was jammed full of the wool like nest material and all the small nut shells left behind by the squatters that infested this machine. While the more accessible areas of the machine had the nesting material and shells removed long before it came to me, any place like this which requires substantial disassembly to reach is going to be filled like this. 

After I removed the mess you see above, I could see that some has reached into the air blower thus I will have to partially disassemble that to clear out the foreign debris.