Door latch inoperative. Door closed. Exterior button with three legs is out. White interior lever that that button pushes is loose and at the bottom of case. How doyou open the case to getat this mechanism; how do you repair latch?

A lot of times on the sharp microwave they have a series of plastic levers and linkage that have to push up and down to latch your door and close the switches inside if one of the switches inside does not close properly the machine thinks the door is open so it will not allow it to run or heat when you open the door look at the little hooks that are sticking out of the door and try to push them up and down and make sure that they have a spring action to them if they do not or one is loose then that is where your problem is

It's a known door hinge switch problem. Remove the 2 torx screws on the bottom of each side, remove the 10 Phillips screws on the back, remove the 3 deep Phillips screws on each bottom outside edge.
Pull the bottom edges out and slide the housing off the back. It's held tight by a rubber strip around the front of the unit.
Locate the hinge on the left side and note that it is not pressing down the lever that indicates the door is closed. Bend the lever down so the hinge clears the top and depresses the switch. Test closing the door a few times to be sure the hinge clears the lever and is able to depress it when the door is closed.
Seat the rubber seal and carefully slide the housing forward being sure the housing tabs are seated tight around the rubber sealing strip. Replace all the screws starting with the bottom.
The door will close easily and the time will be working again.
Estimated time for repair: under 30 minutes.
Tools: Torx 10 screwdriver, small Phillips screwdriver, plyers to bend switch lever.

Look at the bottom latch The inside catch is a white nylon cam in a slot at the bottom.If it is there and working you can push it and feel a spring action. It's possible a drop of mineral oil or vegetable oil will revive it if it's still there.( It's not wise to use petroleum based oil on non metalac parts)

Hi Glen,
Have you taken the wrapper off of the unit to open the door? You usually have to use a pencil or small screwdriver to lift up on the bottom latch head (doorkey as Panasonic calls it). These counter top models typically use a three step method to open the door. The push to open button pushes on a lever that then lifts up on the bottom doorkey. The lifting lever cracks and won't support fully the weight of the doorkey. The crack can be small enough to not really be noticeable if you are not very familiar with this problem. I'm pretty sure that this is what you will find. Let me know..

Fixed this problem! The door latches were greasy and sticking in the closed position (i.e., pushed down so not latching and engaging fully when the door was closed) and this created the problems described above. Solution was to squirt some Windex into the latch holes to dissolve the grease. The switches popped back into position (must be spring-loaded) and the door closed and latched properly, allowing the oven to function properly. I swabbed out the hole with a q-tip, let it dry for 20 minutes and all is well.

It may be that the push button, cam lever or door latch (or all three) have some grease accumulated on them that's making it sticky to open.

Or the rear surface of the push button or the face of the lever may be so worn that the door latches don't get pushed up all the way anymore.

These door opening parts are all located behind the control panel and pretty easy to get to so you can observe them as you press the button. That way you can figure out which is bad.

At our site, we have a video showing how to remove a typical over the range control panel assembly in under 5 minutes.

You can find helpful exploded view diagrams and order parts by entering your full model number here.

You should enter your model number without the dashes: KCMS122YAL0

We're happy to help you with free advice and we'd appreciate your thoughtful rating of our answer.

What usually breaks is the door open lever.

On a counter top model, the outer cover will need to be removed to diagnose and repair this. On an over-the-range model, only the control panel needs to be
removed.

Please unplug the oven first.

If you or someone you know wants to look into this, we have critical safety, disassembly, and troubleshooting info at our site, and our link is at our listing here on FixYa.

Once it is apart, you'll be able to see how the door open button would press against the door open lever, which would then lift up against the door latch heads (hook-like projections on the door) and the door should open.

You can order Panasonic parts here.

We're happy to help you with free advice and we'd appreciate your thoughtful rating of our answer.

I hope this picture shows up - it helps illustrate:

This is usually caused by either a bad door switch, a loose door switch mount, or occasionally by a problem on the control panel.

Even though a door switch clicks, it may still be bad inside. Its continuity must be checked.

Door switch or mount trouble can be caused by slamming the door or by opening the door while it's cooking without hitting the Stop pad first.

There are plastic mounts inside the microwave which hold the door switches and onto which the door latches lock when you close the door.

The screws on these mounts may be loose. If they get too loose, the switches will not be activated properly.

Sometimes it's a broken tab on the switch holder, allowing the switch to rotate just out of position. Other times, it's a broken tab on the switch holder, allowing the switch to rotate just out of position. This tab can be hard to see, since it is under the bottom edge of the switch.

If you or someone you know decide to look into it, we have critical information on safety, disassembly and door switches at our site, and our link is at our listing here on FixYa:.

You can find helpful exploded view diagrams and order parts by entering your full model number here.

If you think the problem is on the control panel, we repair these nationwide by mail for $39.95 postpaid in most cases.

We're happy to help and we appreciate your thoughtful rating of our answer.

Thanks for the tips - here is what I did (my wife calls me the Canadian McGuyver!) After taking off the plastic frame (using instructions in Solutions noted above) I used the metal part of a key ring and hooked one end to the spring and looped it around the thick finger/protrusion at the bottom.

Please post the brand name and model number so we can have the best chance to help you.

But generally you will see a plastic lever that is touching both the door open button and the area of the door switches.

That lever is what breaks most often, and if you will push up on the door hooks (latch heads) , the door will open.

Pushing on the door open button repeatedly while looking inside will help you figure it out, too.

We're happy to help and we appreciate your thoughtful rating of our answer.