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Well...I figured it out myself (removing the panel). I still remember days when it was so easy to open up a washer, a 5 year can do it. Now it's just like modern cars - gets more and more complicated - everyone keeps coming with all these fancy ideas of how to fasten things down that limits the workability to only service profesionals.
Anyhow, for those who come across this same difficulty, here a quick overview...
The back panel can be removed! ...and be removed without doing anything fancy. I know at first, it seems impossible, but rest assured it is doable without breaking parts.
The panel basically slides up and outonce all the fastener has been removed. There's6 fasteners that hold this down:
1.) Near the 2 back legs ... there's 2 small screw holding the panel to the frame - 1 at each side near the leg.
2.) At the top corners, there's the same small screws holding it to the control panel housing.
Now for the tricky part...
3.) Towards the top, at the same level as where the control panelseats onthe box, there 2 gold brackets holding the panel (you can see them poking though and latching onto the panel). When you see it, you'll know that sliding the panel up will unhook it from the bracket. BEAWARE, it's touch to remove. You'll need a flat head to push the bracket down as you try to lift the panel up. As you lift the panel, you'll notice it starts to push on the lip of the control panel housing. Try to use the flat to push down on the bracket instead of continuing to force the panel up.
Once you get this bracket unlatched, you've practically removed the panel.
At this point, you can pull the panel away from the unit as much as the attached wiring and components will let you.It easy to find theplastic fasteners to unlatch the wiring, drain hose, etc, from the panel.
Now that you've gotten the panel off, you can begin to detach the control panel housing from the unit (i'll explain why you need to do this later). There's 2 screws holding down the housing - one on each side. It unscrews from the front of the control panel. You'll have to remove the plastic corners of the housing to see the screw head. You can remove those corners by unlatching it's hooks from the housing from the backside with the panel off (now that the back panel is off).
Removing the control panel housing is needed because this is the only way you'll be able to relatch that bracket to the panel when its time to put it back on. You'll see what I mean when you done this.
If anyone wants more detail on how this is done, reply to this thread or email me
dbbyleo@yahoo.com, and if I have time, could provide pictures of the things I'm refering to.
To close, I was getting really frustrated on how Kenmore made this process so complicated. There's no way of telling how this thing comes off without a repair manual (which I don't have) or simply jumping right in and using best judgment. I was lucky, I didn't break anything in the process.I hate how everything is mounted on this cover panel - the water spout, the water inlet, etc. I mighthold this against kenmore and their design team.
Good luck.
