Damper Lift Problem

[Avery Todd]

List,

A sort of puzzler for you on this Monday morning. The same 'D'
with the sluggish flanges that I asked about a week or so ago
also has a damper lift problem. The symptom is not enough
damper lift with the pedal, like when there is way too much
play in the pedal adjustment. Which there is.

I did all the usual stuff. I took up the excess play but that
made the arm under the keybed so high that there was not enough
space before it hit the felt stop.

I also checked all the other felts, leathers, etc. and they are
all fine. The only thing left is for the damper underlevers to
be too high off the tray. Which is exactly what I finally figured
out is the problem. Now, the lift with the keys is way too late,
which would account for the problem of the strings not getting
high enough off the strings. But it's the underlever position,
not the key end felt.

I can, of course,reregulate the dampers but my question is does
anyone have any idea of why this might have happened? It's been
fine for about 3 yrs. and then all of a sudden (it seems like)
this happened.

Is there any way the excess humidity in the hall after our flood
problems could have caused this to happen? I don't understand how
that could be, though. Everything seems to be free and they are
not being held up by excess friction or anything like that. This
is something I just can't figure out the why! Is there any chance
of things returning to normal and then end up having to
re-reregulate the damper lift? :-(

I hate regulating dampers but at least I now have the new Spurlock
jig for that, so it should go a lot faster and easier.

Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.

Avery