jury-rigged pedal rods

[Paul Mulik]

Hello list,

The other day I tuned a Kimball studio, and noticed that the bass sustain
pedal wasn't working.  Figuring the rod must have fallen out, I removed the
bottom panel and found that some tooner had removed the rod for the center
pedal from the trapwork (but not from the lift rod) and duct-taped it to the
rod for the damper pedal, so that when the damper pedal is pressed, both
rods go up simultaneously, as if you were pushing both the center and right
pedals at the same time.  Why anyone would do this, I have no idea, so I
unwrapped all the tape and put the rods where they belonged.

After that, the pedals worked fine, but I noticed a faint but annoying
"screech" every time I depressed the damper pedal.  Turns out the damper
lift rod is rubbing against the tops of the spoons (almost all of them).
Whether this was the result of the jury-rigged pedal rods or just a
coincidence, I don't know.  The rod and hangers don't appear to be damaged.
I've worked on a lot of these old Kimballs, but I've never encountered this
particular problem before.  How do I fix this?

Thank you,

Paul Mulik
Joplin, MO