Hi, Jeannie .. It was nice to see you in Washington. I'm answering because I used to do warranty on these grands, and one of mine did the same thing. This was years and years ago, and I don't remember if I ever did figure out why the pitman would jump from its hole. As I remember, the pin of the upper end wasn't very long, which may have been part of the problem. It's so long I'm not even sure if there was a pin, instead of a small recess for the pitman, but the cure would be the same for either. What I did was build it a little collar of (the _ever_ useful) scrap hammer felt, which I glued to the underside of the tray. Essentially, I made it a socket for the whole wooden end of the pitman, instead of just the pin, sufficiently snug and deep that the dowel couldn't wander, but with a _small_ amount of clearance so the pitman wouldn't bind either. It worked. No more complaints and emergency service calls. In hindsight, if I had it to do again, I might check that the damper stop rail is set at the right height, so the tray would find it harder to move above the top end of the pitman pin. You've probably already done this. I might also check if there were room in the hole in the tray to accommodate a longer pin. I never did see how the pitman could slip out without the tray parting company with it, so an alternate approach might be to install a spring in the action cavity ala Steinway, that pressed down on the tray, but this would also stiffen the pedal excessively unless other alterations were made. Good luck! Please tell me how this problem works out for you. Susan ------------------------------------------------------------- > have been scratching my head over >a particular Kimbal Grand 5105 built in 1978, that I can't figure out. It >sounds like maybe you could be the person to help me with my dilemma. > I have made repeated visits to this piano to fix the sustain pedal. For >reasons that I have not been able to figure out, the pitman refuses to stay >in place and every few weeks, after playing, I get a call that it is jammed >again and the dampers are all locked either partially, or all the way off >the strings. > The first time I was called was after the movers had left and I assumed >it was the usual misplacement of the pitman in the move. But since then, >I've thought that maybe something was damaged in the move that I am not >seeing. For instance the arc of movement of the parts. How should they >look. Or any other ideas that might occur to anyone. To me, everything >looks normal, and yet something is not right. > I've tried everything I know, but can't figure out what is causing this >to happen. Before leaving each time, I sit and play the pedal 100-200 >times, trying to force it to malfunction, and I leave, assured that it is >finally going to work. I've lubricated all the obvious places, removed any >excess lost motion, retightened the brass collar around the top of the pedal >rod........ > Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I don't know of any more ways >to look at this. And both my client and I are running out of patience. I >hope her's holds out a little longer. > >Jeannie Grassi, RPT >Bainbridge Island, WA >jgrassi@silverlink.net > -------------------------------------------------- Susan Kline P.O. Box 1651 Philomath, OR 97370 skline@proaxis.com "I know exactly how long it will take me: whatever time is available, plus a little more." -- Ashleigh Brilliant
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