Replacing Oven Door Cable and Spring on 1952 O’Keefe & Merritt

waternai · Nov 17, 2022

DISASSEMBLY:
There are two springs that hold the oven door shut. This is how I replaced the cable and reconnected the spring on the right side behind the panel. I couldn’t get the screws out to connect the cable to the wire hook on the left side, but as far as I know, it connects the same way once you’re in there. Please excuse any dust bunnies seen in the photos.
— Remove the burner grates and the stove cover in the right side.
— Pull the kick plate off the front of the range at the bottom. It is just held in place with two pinch clips.
— Behind the range, there are four screws holding the side panel on—two where the top section connects to the main body of the range and two below that connecting to the body of the range. They are about 10mm and take a flathead screwdriver. Remove the ones you can see holding the panel in place. No need to fully remove the bracket holding the range-back up on top of the stove.
— There is one screw holding the top lip of the side panel to the frame at the top of the stove. Remove that.
— There’s a little chrome trim piece on the side between the side panel and the top section of the range, the stove-back behind the burners. I was able to gently lift it out of the way, which is fine. Unfortunately, it got bumped and broken off on reassembly. Don’t do that part.

I didn’t see how to fully remove it, so just be careful. Upon reflection, it might be that that piece is accessible if you remove the stove back from the top of the stove. If you try it, let us know.
— Pull the back of the side panel away from the back of the range to clear the panel’s lip from the back of the range and the top edge from under the stove-back, then slide the whole panel forward towards the front of the stove. It has a little pinch-bracket holding it in place in front, but the only screws are those in the back and the one on top. Give it a firm shove.
— Gently pull the insulation back from the lower corner at the front edge of the stove.
— Remove the screw holding the metal plates in the corner that keeps the cable and pulley from tangling in the insulation.
— The larger of the two plate simply lifts out of the way. That’s the only one you need to remove.

(Continued in next reply.)

waternai · Nov 17, 2022

Side panel covering pulley

This is the little panel covering the pulley in the lower front corner of the range.

waternai · Nov 18, 2022

Spring Connection and Reassembly

— The original cable has a crimped end with an eye on it. I ended up simply looping the cable over and crimping it to make a small eye with the cable itself. Whatever method you use, the cable should be 10.5” from eye to eye.
— The spring section comes in two parts. There is a medium-heavy spring and long steel hook that runs through it.
— It is the long hook that attaches to the range through a little hole in the rail that runs along the bottom outside of the frame. This small hole is way towards the back of the range and not towards the front where you might expect it.
— The cable connects to the spring itself.
— Hook the long steel hook through the small hole in the frame of the range.
— Loop the cable over the hook on the spring itself, run the cable along the channel of the frame to the front, then feed it under the pulley and up through the space between the pulley and the front of the stove.
— There is a second long steel hook with an almost closed loop at one end and a shepherd’s crook hook at the other. Connect the eye on the cable to the loop on the hook, and then put the shepherd’s crook end of the hook over the stud that is on the end of the door hinge bracket. The stud is on the inside side of the bracket that faces the oven. It can help to have someone extend and hold the spring to give some slack to the cable so it isn’t under tension while you catch the hook over the stud.
— Make sure the cable didn’t pop off of the pulley while you were hooking the hook. See that the door opens and closes smoothly and stays shut. Your cable shouldn’t be too long or it won’t hold the door closed snugly.
— Alternatively, if it seems easier, you could do this the other way. Hook the crook over the stud on the door hinge bracket, run the cable around the pulley and under the frame, connect it to the spring, and then pull the cable and spring all the way back to where you can hook the long steel hook through the small hole in the frame. If you’re doing this yourself, it could be easier to do it this way, though trying to get the hook through the tiny hole hole in the frame while the spring is under tension could be fiddly.

That’s it! Now you just need to put the range back together.

— Screw in the little panel that covers the pulley and cable.
— Gently put the insulation back over the side of the oven.
— Push the side panel onto the front pinch clips. The top lip of the panel will go over the top of the stove for most of the way and then under the stove-back and that little piece of chrome trim you’re trying not to snap off. The back lip of the panel will go between the back of the range and the large bracket holding the stove-back then continue over the back of the range.
— Screw the screw into the top of the range by the burners and also screw in the four screws along the back—two in through the bracket and two just into the panel.
— Push the front kick-plate back onto the clips.
— Gently push down the piece of trim that you didn’t knock off with the side panel.
— Put the stove cover back on and place the burner grates on top, seating them the right direction so that the tooth on the grate fits into the slot on the stove top.

Now your O’Keefe & Merritt is ready to go. I hope you took the opportunity while your stove was out and partially disassembled to clear out any dust bunnies and cobwebs and to sweep and wipe the floor under and behind the stove.

I wasn’t sure what to call this bracket on the door that the cable-hook attaches to. The door has a separate hinge at the bottom that attaches the door to the oven. That is the actual hinge for the door. The thing that curves out from the door and goes into the walls of the oven looks like the door hibge, but it really just the arm that attaches to the cable contraption that pulls the door snugly to the face of the oven. As you may have noticed, this tutorial is only for the outside hinge. Unfortunately, the screws holding the cover that goes over the divider between the oven and the Grillevator would not budge, so I couldn’t access the pulley and the stud on the arm where the hook attaches. While the hook from the other side was accessible, I did shape a replacement hook in case the original is missing and a vintage replacement is unavailable. Perhaps another day I will try tackling the frozen screws again or see if I can fish a cable through the tiny space around the pulley. I am not a stove expert, but I am happy to share any tips I figured out replacing the outside cable and answer any questions you might have.