Repost: Help! My capstans are too short!

[Tvak@AOL.COM]

List  (Hope this isn't a redundant post...I mailed this off this AM at 10:08, 
and as of 1PM it's still not on the list, so here it is again.

I'm putting back together a Cable (Conover) 44" studio console and this AM I 
had a few minutes, so I thought I'd take out the considerable lost motion 
(1/8" at the front of the key!) and found that the capstans aren't long 
enough to eliminate the lost motion.  The capstans are not short ones, 
either.  They are 1 1/8" in total length, but to sit tight in the key they 
protrude 15/16".   

I tried raising the key height but that didn't help.  I could put new 
backrail felt in, which I think would help a little bit, but the present 
backrail felt doesn't seem overly worn or compressed so it probably wouldn't 
make that much difference.  The wippen felts have a depression where the 
capstan sits, but doesn't every piano?  The depression doesn't seem excessive.

I did change the hammer blow distance which I assumed caused the lost motion, 
but I've never had a situation where there was so much lost motion it 
couldn't be compensated for, so I'm looking at other causes.  When I got the 
piano there were no cushions under the hammer rail at all and the blow 
distance was close to 3", so I set it at 1 7/8".  Maybe I should increase the 
hammer blow distance to 2" or 2 1/2".  That certainly would help.  I got the 
1 7/8" from the Piano Handbook.  I wasn't sure exactly which of the models 
listed under Cable referred to mine, but the largest hammer blow distance 
listed for any of them was 1 7/8".  

The piano did have some structural damage to the case which we repaired.  One 
of the legs and the horizontal piece connecting the leg to the case at the 
bottom was loose, and was reattached.   Maybe this changed the level of the 
keybed and contributed to the lost motion?

Other things I've done to the piano that I don't think would cause this but I 
should mention to give the complete picture are:
    new keytops
    new damper felts
    new damper flanges (the old ones were plastic)

The client is looking forward to getting the piano next weekend...

Any thoughts on a solution?

Thanks,
Tom Sivak