If you are skilled with tweezers, and patient, you won't wreck the carto. I take no responsibility for the following instructions that are provided for educational purposes only.
Battery side:
Use a flathead to pop out the metal pin. Just lift up on it. Use tweezers to pull out the silicone sleeve that was around the pin. Don't tug on the wire in the hole. It may take a little effort if you've got too much adhesive. Use an exacto knife, tweezers, etc to remove all the white adhesive from the silicon.
Mouth side:
Grasp the center tube with tweezers and pull it out. You might have to gently rock it in a circle for it to break free. The other end will be split with a small wick and coil in the split with two wires sticking straight up. At this point, either you will have a fat white ring of adhesive like mine, or virtually nothing like Rift. Lift the wick out with tweezers and set it aside. Avoid bending the leads.
At this point you can choose to unwrap the tube and rinse it out or just grasp it with a kleenex. If you rinse it and dry it, you'll find it a bit more challenging to reassemble. I recommend leaving it wet. Pull up on the tube with your tweezers to expose a gap between the ring of adhesive and the wrappings. Use scissors or an exacto knife and make a clean straight cut. Use the tweezers, or a flathead in the slit, to push the tube back down, but not quite flush.
Using tweezers, gently replace the wick into the slit with
both wires pointing straight up. Make sure the wick is flush with the wrappings. Now for the semi-tricky part. Slowly slide everything back up in the case. Carefully watch the battery hole to make sure both wires are going to make it through. Use a needle to gently guide them if necessary. If they bend, pull everything out, try to straighten the wire and try again.
Now use an object to apply slight upward pressure on the wrappings. I use the flat end a jeweler's screwdriver, but a pencil would probably work. Look down the battery end hole. Using a needle or toothpick, gently spread the slit open a bit so the ends of the tube are generally not visible from the battery hole. The upwards pressure is to make sure the tube and wrappings are flush against the battery end. If necessary,
very gently center the wick, and make sure it's still in full contact with the wrapping. Don't bend the wires, and don't knock the wick loose.
Carefully replace the silicon sleeve. One wire needs to come up through the hole, and the other wire will be sandwiched between the shell and the sleeve. It's very important that the wires do not cross or the carto won't work. Try to make sure the sandwiched wire is on the same side of the shell as its end of the wick. It doesn't have to be perfect. At this point, you might need to very gently recenter the wick again.
The remaining wire will be sandwiched between the silicone sleeve and the pin. Again, try to make sure the wire is on the same side of the shell as its end of the wick. Slowly press the pin down. Make sure the wire did not go into the air hole, else pull it out and try again.
If you have a voltmeter, check the ohms to make sure it's ~2.5, otherwise just be careful. Fill it up as normal, taryn spin it, let it sit, whatever floats your boat. Put it on a battery and gently blow through the battery end while cupping your hand at the mouth piece. Waft the vapor to make sure it's not rancid. If it is, give it a chance with a few puffs. If the wafts aren't rancid, puff it like a cigar just in case it is still acidic.
At this point, hopefully your carto tastes better than it ever did!