Soap damaged pinblocks?

[Carol Beigel]

        I hope this question has not been posed before.  If so please direct
me to where!  I encountered a Steinway L, serial #474??? (circa 1981) that
has a few loose tuning pins in the bass.

        What makes these pins special, is that they are near the plate
screws that hold the pinblock to the plate.  Since the pinblock is very
narrow in the bass, only 4 or 5 tuning pins are affected if I think I have
the problem diagnosed.  My suspicion is that soap was used on these plate
screws as a lubricant when the piano was assembled in the factory, and that
the soap has traveled over the years into the adjacent tuning pin holes.
All the other tuning pins in the piano are fine, and all other "first row
pins" aren't as close to plate screws as these in the bass are.

        I replaced the worst pin with another one just slightly larger, and
it worked just fine. I am on borrowed time with about 3 others.  My question
is:  if soap really leached into these tuning pin holes, am I not on
borrowed time with my bigger pins?  The piano is not that old, what is the
long term solution?  Should I be thinking about swabbing these tuning pin
holes with something that will dissolve the soap?  Will I eventually have to
"plug" these holes and if so, what is to keep the soap from loosening the
glue around the plugs?

Thanks for your help!

Carol Beigel, RPT
Greenbelt, Maryland