Atari 400 cartridge cover flap - how to fix it?

[minty]

Hi all, just had a bit of a disaster with my beloved Atari 400, hope you can help.

 

I pressed the button to pop up the flap to insert a new cartridge, and the flap came completely off! It looks like the left hand side lug had snapped off (perhaps because of an earlier fix by a previous owner). I glued the lug back on - but of course, now I can't get the cover back onto the machine. It's simply too wide to slot back into the holes.

 

Has this happened to anyone else? If I take it apart, will I find this job easier? is there a 'magic trick' that's currently eluding me?

 

Many thanks in advance for your help.

 

Tony.

[+orpheuswaking]

You will need to take the top cover off of the 400, The bracket that holds each side of the cartridge door on are only accessible from inside. It is a fairly easy exercise and should take about 10 minutes.

 

Be careful with the keyboard connector however, The keyboard can be pushed out of the frame in the top cover so that you do not have to unplug it, but it's a little tricky the first time.