Okay, let me see if there is any way to describe this adequately.
Remove the door by popping it off the plastic pin that runs through the door brackets.
Slide out that plastic pin (dowel) .
Determine the direction that your spring -"springs". (sorry)
Set the "U" that looks like a staple, into the groove on the door catch where it will sit.
Now, get your six year old daughter.....
Not kidding, you need four arms for this! (A two dollar spring!!)
Thread the spring in that direction on the plastic pin, and thread the pin back through the holders on the door.
Have someone hold that spring into the groove with a specialized kitchen tool. (we used the side of a fork!)
You then take a tool in the same shape of the plastic pin, (we used s skish k bob skewer) and putting it along the line where the dowel WOULD snap in later, catch those two little "arms" sticking off the spring, and pull them back flush with the dishwasher door.
Now, take your door, and carefully ease it between your temporary bridge (the skewer), and catching the "arms" now on the door edge, push it into the dowel until it snaps, (without allowing those little arms to snap back)
If you slowly pop it back onto the plastic dowel pin already in place, it will now be holding the spring arms back instead of your skewer.
All the while, your daughter must be holding the "U" shape section of the spring down into that groove without wiggling.
Gingerly remove your skewer, sliding it out as simultaneously snap your door back onto the white dowel.
If you do this at the correct speed, the door edge will now be restraining the spring arms, and your dowel will be free.
Snap the door shut.
If you release the catch, and it doesn't spring back immediately, you need to repeat the whole process, flipping the spring over in the other direction, as you put it in backwards.
If the door springs back, give your kid a super high five and swagger brazenly to the garage to put away your "tools".
Seriously, it's ridiculously tricky as the parts are small and access is nil, I am sure there is some better way the pros do this but this was the best we could do minus the $60 house call.
Good luck!
ps I'd rather put new shocks and struts on my 11 year old volvo, that's how much this task stinks! ( I did that last week, following a cryptic manual not written in my native tongue!)
Gigi Ricci (housewife and queen of the castle repair), January 2006
