P68 hopper latch

[Havilcek stole the ball]

Hello all,

I've seen much valuable information on here over the years, and appreciate all of it. until now, I have been in read only mode, but now I have a problem.

I have a Harman P68 around five years old. The hopper latch was not latching at one point this season, so I took it apart and reassembled. On the under-lid part of the assembly, there is a knob and a bushing or a nut that holds it. I think those might have gotten reversed, so I switched it around and it was fine for a month. Since last night though, I can't open the hopper lid. I can feel resistance from the latch.

Any ideas? It's a $40 latch or so. I could brutalize it I suppose and open it, and I will have to do that later this morning because it will run out of pellets pretty soon. Anyone know of a way to open that latch that does not involve destroying it?

Thanks all.

 

[Bioburner]

Is it a cam over latch? If so its like ours, you should be able to drive out the pin on the main latch and the rest of the assembly will drop into the hopper.

 

[GIPPER]

Is it a cam over latch? If so its like ours, you should be able to drive out the pin on the main latch and the rest of the assembly will drop into the hopper.View attachment 126879

You should be able to open it with a little muscle,it won't break.I think you just went to tight with the nut on the bottom and squished the grommet.back it off once you get it open.

 

[Havilcek stole the ball]

You should be able to open it with a little muscle,it won't break.I think you just went to tight with the nut on the bottom and squished the grommet.back it off once you get it open.

Gipper,

I think you are right - I used a crow bar to open it and the latch survived. The nut was up into the grommet. I loosened it up and it's okay, although it does not really latch. It was like that for a while before this, and the performance of the stove did not seem to suffer. Thanks for your help.

 

[GIPPER]

Gipper,

I think you are right - I used a crow bar to open it and the latch survived. The nut was up into the grommet. I loosened it up and it's okay, although it does not really latch. It was like that for a while before this, and the performance of the stove did not seem to suffer. Thanks for your help.

Sorry I didn't get back to you yesterday,but you shouldn't be able to open the lid once it is latched.

 

[GIPPER]

Maybe you should tighten the nut a bit more.