1879 Steinway A

[Richard Brekne]

Hey folks

Am just getting started changing a set of hammers and shanks on this old 
A.  The new shanks place the shank center pin about 2 mm further away 
from the hammer rail. This pushes the knuckles just a bit farther back 
then I would like, and will force me to go through all whippens and 
remove a bit of the jack return cushion in order to regulate the jacks.  
The origional whippens are going to remain and there is no regulating 
button for this position on those for those of you that arent familiar 
with this older type of Steinway action. The origional centerpin to 
knuckle was 15.5. So with the new shanks at 17, and the center itself 
out about 2 mm... the knuckle itself is out about 3.5 mm more.  The jack 
to knuckle position with the origional shanks and knuckles has the jack 
well under the knuckle and past the back end of the core... so there is 
room to make the adjustment to get a good position with the new shanks.

I'm looking for suggestions and thoughts as to what to do here. I could 
go through and change all flanges so as to use the origionals I 
suppose.. I checked one and the jack ended up just perfect under the 
knuckle... but then I have to change all the flanges on the new set.

so whadaya whadaya ?

RicB