disassembly and maintainance on mini-tripod?

I have a small table top tripod by Nikon

http://s48.photobucket.com/albums/f2...nik_tripod.jpg

which has served me very well. However, it's never
been quite the same since this incident:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.p...38f7afa8981ad0

(dunked in Coca Cola in a back pack :-( )

I would like to strip, clean and reassemble, but I've hit
a snag.

I have managed (not hard) to disassemble it as shown he

http://s48.photobucket.com/albums/f2...tripod_dis.jpg

But I cannot see how to get the actual ball assembly apart.

I can say for certain
that the retaining cap on the ball does not screw
(and thus unscrew) from the base; it seems to simply
fit in a groove, and can be rotated both clockwise
and anti-clockwise indefinately.

Actually, it was cheap enough that I could buy
another, but I *hate* throwing out items
that are repairable, regardless of economics.

All help gratefully received.

BugBear