A stuck fuel panel latch that ate my entire Saturday

Spent most of last Saturday chasing a fuel panel latch on a King Air that would not seat no matter what I did. I figured it was a worn striker, so I swapped it, adjusted it twice, and still no luck. Turned out a tiny bend in the panel lip was keeping the roller from dropping in, and I only caught it after running a straightedge across the frame. Five and a half hours for a ten minute fix. Has anyone else chased a latch problem that turned out to be the panel itself?

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gavinh261mo ago

A 5 and a half hour Saturday for a bent lip seems like a lot of wasted time, but I have to ask, is that really the latch's fault? A straightedge check takes 30 seconds and maybe that should be step one before you start swapping strikers. In my experience most latch problems come back to the panel or the frame anyway, not the hardware itself. Sounds less like a serious problem and more like a lesson in checking the simple stuff first. Your mileage may vary, but I would not call that a mystery worth writing up.

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