One broken jack

[Mark Graham]

The patient: an old Shaw upright. Seems to have been a quality piano, with
sostenuto and the bar below the wippens that takes up lost motion when the
soft pedal is on. It was in such junky shape that I was tempted to turn
down the job, but the customer pleaded and begged, and actually it turned
out fine. Naturally, she had already refinished it before calling a
technician.

Everything is fixed adequately except one broken jack. A new jack would do
the trick, and I could scrounge one from scrap parts. But, I can't get the
wippen out. The rail related to the soft pedal is in the way, and removing
it seems next to impossible. I did try, even unscrewing wippens so I could
slide it sideways. But it's one of those pianos where the wood is old and
brittle and delicate, so I gave up on that.

I need to replace the jack without removing the wippen. I suppose I need
to break the jack flange free from the wippen, replace the jack, and
reglue the flange. There is little room to work. Any suggestions as to how
to approach the task?

Mark Graham
Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music