I tried to repair a microwave once. I was unsuccessful.
Good thing you survived. They are seriously dangerous. The capacitor usually retains enough energy to kill you for days after it was unplugged.
That’s exactly the part I was changing. The terminals on it were plenty recessed, and I was careful not to stick my finger directly into the socket.
Diode and magnetron are also frequent failure causes. The magnetron is easy to test with a resistance meter. Should be low ohms through and infinity to its casing. (all cables removed of course)
It just stopped heating things up. A bit of research suggested that the most common failure was the capacitor, which was like $10, so I figured why not? I was going to have to take the broken microwave off the wall whether I could fix it or not.
Didn’t work, bought a new microwave.
Microwave repair can actually be quite dangerous if I understand correctly, as they can hold a residual charge which can be very harmful if you short it.
