Charlie Bress wrote:
This is a Panasonic microwave that is about 10 years old.
It works just fine.
The problem is that it has become fussy to open
In the picture at the link you can see the inside portion of the gray
opening button. It has a small projection that lifts the part of the
latch mechanism that is white. The latch works ok. The part of the
gray plastic does not seem to lift the white latch part high enough to
release the latch.

If I just reach in and raise the latch mechanism by hand from the
right place, the door unlatches ok I have tried putting a small piece
of Lucite on top of the gray actuator, to increase the throw, but
that is not particularly successful. It almost seems as if there is a
bind .in the whole thing. At its age I am pretty sure that part
replacement is a lost cause.
All this is done with the unit unplugged and I am staying well away
from voltage carrying areas.

Except for the latch release the unit works as it should. All the
safety switches are in place and operating.

I am looking for informed opinion on how to proceed.
Please do not tell me it is dangerous. I know and have worked around
high voltage environments before.
Don't tell me to buy a new one. I can figure that out by myself.

Answers to the Newsgroup only. We can all learn from each other.

http://cbress.home.comcast.net/mwave.jpg

Many thanks

Charlie

Assuming you know enough to drain any large capacitors in there and know
what you are doing, I rank this one as one of those projects that you can
only do by making guesses and decisions as you go based on what you see at
each step in the process. My only real warning is to make sure you don't
deactivate any safety device when working on it.

In the few I have opened up, it was not hard to figure out what parts
did what. I also quickly figured out that in I needed a replacement part, I
doubt if I would be able to find one. Of the three I worked on, I fixed the
first one and the other two were never reassembled since it was clear I did
not find the problem.

--
Joseph Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math