I hope you can find an alternate method, Maybe a modified choke cable? Good luck!

@@SABsGarage Thanks, we managed to work it out by using the broken lead still in the latch, tugging on that while reaching around and depressing the lever on the other side. Just learned our four-year-old Samsung washing machine has to be replace because the extended warranty won't replace the levelers which now cost more than the machine is worth (according to warranty company). The machine didn't last the length of the warranty. If we want to improve our environment by getting rid of plastics perhaps we should start with all the plastic gears and other parts in our cars (and other devices) that have tried and failed to replace metal parts.