Damian
I'm not familiar with this one so I can't give you specific tear-down instructions. If your processor was used for RA 4, you may find two types of build up on your racks. The RA 4 developers tend to leave a dark, purple-brown tar-like build up, while the blix will leave a chalk-like scaly build up. Even the rinse tanks can show rust and hard water staining.
As I said, I'm not familiar with your processor, but my guess is that they are a more horizontally aligned version of the Hope and Kreonite processors. These have 4 removable racks of rollers, each similar but sightly different. They should be labeled. The development tank rack will have a gripper roller that grabs the paper from the slot, the blix tank will have a guide rail in stead of the gripper... the 2nd rinse tank will have a pair of squeegee rollers that feed into the dryer.
If your racks are removable, do so, and soak them in soapy water. Depending on how well the processor was maintained, the developer rack and tank will be the most difficult to get clean. It may require just a simple wipe-down with a sponge after soaking. The developer tank in my Hope required a putty knife. The objective is to get all of the rollers clean, even the ones that you can't see or reach.
You should see some stainless steel guide rails. They are curved strips of polished stainless steel that guide the paper through the racks and into the next rack. They should have 2 pairs of pins protruding from each end. On one side of the guide, the pins will be spring-loaded, making removal of the guide easy, giving your fingers and/or a tooth brush access to the inner rollers.
The racks in my Hope processor require the removal of these guides and one of the rollers for complete access (strained as it may be) to the inner rollers. Removing just one roller requires loosening all 8 bolts on the rack frame to give me just enough wiggle room to remove the bottom center roller. Your configuration will no doubt differ.
Before removing any of the guide rails, use a grease pencil to label each rail, the corresponding holes, and the direction and orientation of the rails. Because the rack frames are common to more than one type of processor configuration, there are many more holes in the racks than there are pins to fill them.
Consider replacing all tubing and performing a thorough cleaning before you do anything. Adding chemistry should be done after testing the processor with water. You should test paper feeding, (dry to dry), developer and blix tank temperatures, replenishment rates, and for leaks. When the paper exits the processor with no stains or chalky residue, it should be safe to add the chemistry.
As for cleaning maintenance, the best thing you can do is prevent the chemistry from sitting still in the tank. You should stoke up the old beast, replenish the chemistry, and run a few sheets through across the width of the rollers every couple of days.
I batch process about 4-5 times a year. Each batch lasts about 10-15 days, during which time, the volume of processing is very high so the idle time is quite low. I will generally (but not always) remove the racks and give them a good stiff hose down during the batch processing.
Keep it clean!
