Weaver lost motion

[John Voigt]

I was called to give an evaluation on an old spinet piano yesterday.  I
found a 1945 Weaver spinet.  It was something I had never seen in my
limited experience.  Instead of the usual drop stickers and elbows it
had rocker arms made of pot metal (I think) that were screwed to the
back of the keys and then dropped down and underneath the wippens.
Three of these rocker arms had broken and the owner, who is looking to
rid herself of the piano, had robbed arms from the extreme high and low
ends and replaced the broken ones.  I informed her that I had never seen

any such thing and I was sure I could not get parts for it.  It also had

large amounts of lost motion causing insufficient travel for the wippen
and bobbling hammers.  I did not see any way to adjust lost motion other

than gluing some type of felt or something to the top of this rocker arm

or the bottom of the wippen.

When I got home, to my surprise, I found that Schaff does show a 'Weaver

Bi-level Rocker Arm' in their catalog.  While I still do not consider
the piano worth salvaging, out of curiosity I was wondering if there was
a simpler way to eliminate lost motion in this creation that I missed.
Anyone tried it?

John Voigt
PTG Associate
Avon, SD