[pianotech] problems with Yamaha practice pedal

[Shawn Brock]

I went out on a warranty tuning for a dealer here in town.  The dealer had 
bought a lot of liquidated stock from "going out of business" Yamaha 
dealers, and this T-118 was one of those pianos.

This piano was shipped over to Costco by the store without having been 
serviced.  Well...  What do you know?  It sold.  No tuning and no service, 
but a non-playing mom and dad bought it for the kids.

They get it home and call me for the warranty tuning.  I schedule the 
appointment and ask the lady if the piano has other problems.  She told me 
that the practice pedal wasn't working.  When I got to the home and 
disassembled the piano I saw why.  The left arm of the muffler rail had 
popped out of the side of the case.  I also saw that the end of the spring 
was quite contorted, and the left arm was bent a good ways.

No problem!  I can bend it back into shape and put in another spring.  The 
watchful customer was showing concern though.  She kept saying, "This is a 
new piano!"  She also was wondering aloud about calling the dealer...  I 
decided to cut her off at the pass and call the store and tell them about 
the problem.  After that call I proceeded to call Yamaha and inform them of 
the problem and request new parts.  Alls good...

One month later I finely got my parts and went to install the new rail and 
spring today.  I put it in and take off the lower panel to adjust the 
practice pedal, and I see another booboo!  Its foolish that I didn't check 
this before, but what ever, just call me dumb...  What ever holds the L 
brackets in the turnbuckles is gone.  The bracket goes through the 
turnbuckle and that's it!

I haven't had to put one of these in from scratch for a while but I seem to 
recall that Yamaha uses some plastic peace to hold the end of the bracket on 
the opposite side of the turnbuckle.

With nothing holding the bracket but the turnbuckle the linkage just pops 
out after a push or two on the pedal.

So help me here!  After waiting a month for parts from Yamaha, and making 
two trips on this, I'm starting to get sick of it all!  I know the customer 
is as well, and I don't blame her.  Where I come from you don't have to be a 
physicist to put a muffler rail back in correctly after tuning.  The person 
who "serviced" the piano before must have come from some where different...

What's the best option here.?  Call Yamaha and wait?  Or may another 
solution be offered by one of you who are of the all knowing.

I feel foolish for not checking over all the linkage, but I sure didn't 
expect this...  Its just a practice pedal for god sake!  How can someone 
screw it up so badly!

Thanks for any tips you might have.

Regards,
Shawn Brock, RPT