When you get it disassembled you will observe four vertical copper contact strips each have a contact point at the top. The two strips on one side have contact points facing one another and the other two have contact points facing each other. The sole purpose of the plastic triangle piece, which when coming down, causes the contact points to close. To test this UNPLUG THE TOASTER and slid the lever down and you will notice this plastic triangular piece (should) cause the points to manually close. It may require some manual adjustment if this doesn’t happen. Also check that this plastic piece isn’t deformed by heat or otherwise. Simply cleaning this plastic piece is unlikely to have any beneficial effect as it obviously has no conductive properties and does not form any part of the the electrical circuitry. Sorry, but I don’t have any answer for you otherwise. I do know the actual little latches that hold it down (when it is plugged in) have a little electromagnetic coil below it and the latch has a little metal plate in it. When you push the lever down the electromagnet should activate and hold the latch i an engaged position and only released by pushing the cancel button or the degree of doneness has occurred. I am not too sure how the problem was remedied in this video but simply cleaning crumb residue from the mechanism is likely to fix it unless unless someone had a pop tart or some other type item exploded in there. NB Presenters fingered awfully close to brass/copper contact points which supply the ‘hot’ 110 volt current to the heating coils…..could be in for a nasty shock.and I believe they
I suspect it was crumbs in the electrical contacts preventing the electromagnet from operating and holding the bread tray down. Opening and cleaning it could easily have dislodged them and rectified the problem. The piece you cleaned operates those contacts.
Agreed. I've also found that the slot inside the toaster that the push-down lever inserts into can wear not allowing enough room for the lever to be pushed all the way down. I've made another short video explaining, but the quick fix is simply to use some electrical tape around the lever's end. You don't even need to take the toaster apart.
Mine has since begun to act up again. I could clean it once more, but ordered and received one of the antique 1930ish "flip side" toasters. It still works, burns the toast of you don't watch it , but since it's been around for 90 some years I probably won't have to fix till after I'm long gone. See Part 2 if this Cuisinart video doesn't work for another quick fix: Cuisinart CPT-7 2 slice that won't stay down PT:2
Be sure to look at the second video as you may also need to wrap the push down lever with some foil to tighten it up. Let me know if you get it working.
I'll have to open mine and see where any springs are. Meanwhile if someone else has had theirs apart they may be able to help you. Its a long shot but there may also be a parts diagram online.
You can purchase a true old time toaster from EBay that has the side doors you need to flip open, turn the bread over and reclose to toast the other side of the bread. No timer so you need to pay attention, but those work forever. I have one from the 30's made by The Ford Motor Co. Works great.
