Drawer won't open

We can't open our pantry drawer. The latch broke when we tried to open. We punched out the plastic backing, but we still can't open. Any ideas before my captain takes the sledge hammer to it.

Butter knife in the top gap?

Look at another latch. Is this the kind with a pop-up latch (goes straight up and down)? Or is the kind with an angled latch where the door automatically latches as you close the door? I "think" it's the first kind... which is not as easy. Post a picture of another latch or maybe find one on the net - it should be a Hafele latch?:



If you banged out the entire plastic, back side out, the little "latch" should have gone with it. If it didn't, then it's just hanging there and possibly jiggling the door will make it fall.

If you only banged out the piece you are showing, can you look inside and see if there is anything there you can push/wedge up to release the latch? I've never had to try that, so I'm just kinda spitballing there...

Another spitball coming at you (duck!)... maybe drill out whatever is still in there, hoping that it will allow the latch to fall down. See if you can get a pilot hole dead center to help guide larger and larger drill bits (to avoid damaging the drawer front. Obviously, this needs to be done very carefully and I wouldn't try it unless you were positive you can be super careful.

Still another one... Do you have another drawer (or something) below it that give you access to the bottom side of the problem drawer? The drawer bottom would be relatively easy to fix and you could cut a hole in it, larger enough to get a small pry bar or saw blade in there to pry the locking mechanism off the door or cut it off. This would also most certainly damage the inside of the drawer front, but there are ways to fix that.

The latches aren't expensive... if you wanted to cut apart another one to see how it works - in relation to (compare to) what you've pulled apart already - it might give you some insight as to what you can do.

Whatever you do, be VERY careful as there's a good chance that the drawer front is no longer available from Sea Ray.

Your first pic leads me to believe that the latch is actuated by that angled slot in the plastic piece. That probably means there's another part that connects to it and you haven't removed it. You will most likely be able to manually push the "catch" down and open the drawer and then remove the whole assembly. Mine are different so I'm not sure of the mechanics but that angled slot looks like it would be the activating portion.

Arickosmo said:

Your first pic leads me to believe that the latch is actuated by that angled slot in the plastic piece. That probably means there's another part that connects to it and you haven't removed it. You will most likely be able to manually push the "catch" down and open the drawer and then remove the whole assembly. Mine are different so I'm not sure of the mechanics but that angled slot looks like it would be the activating portion.

Click to expand...

+1 : I agree - the angled channel would appear to pull down the catch when the button is in the open position - thus releasing the drawer. If you can not apply pressure to slide the catch down then look in the hole and you might be able to pull it down by apply down pressure to whatever the catch is attached to.

-Kevin

If all else fails, take a flat-blade screwdriver and a hammer and bust the lock apart thru the hole. It's only held on by the two plastic ears as shown in the pic above. Then go buy a new one on Ebay for $10.

Resolved our problem without busting the drawer. We had punched the latch out with a screwdriver. We then took a flashlight and noticed a container was wedged on the top. Took a metal clothes hanger and managed to free it. After it still wouldn't budge. We made a contraption.. that fit in the hole and with all the captain might he pulled and it opened. Now we have a temporary handle but it's open. The slider wheels had seized. We oiled them and now okay. Ordering oart now.