<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Funny Noises</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> Okay, friends and neig= hbors, this is one for the books. I wrote down notes on all your suggestions, shouldered my big tool case, an= d went downstairs to do battle with the D.  I pulled the action and put= it on a table and started checking.  It bothered me a little that it t= ook so much harder of a blow to make the note click on the bench than in the= piano, but I figured this was due to some resonance thing going on.  I= couldn’t make it click by manually manipulating individual parts, lik= e the jack or the rep lever, but it clicked real well when I struck the key.=  I couldn’t see the jack hitting anything, so I decided to remov= e the hammer and see what happened.  No click.  In looking at the = flange, I noticed a small black line on the underside of the nose of the fla= nge.  Aha! The jack was hitting the flange, and left a graphite mark! &= nbsp;I replaced the hammer, and looked at it some more.  For some reaso= n, the tip of that flange was a little lower that its neighbors, as were som= e the other clicking notes.  I didn’t want to mess with key dip, = since I just barely had enough, so I played around with shimming the flange.=  I ended up putting some travel paper under the back side of the flang= e (opposite the drop screw) crossways, only on the vertical part of the very= back part of the groove.  I wish I could draw a picture!  Any way= , the result was to move the flange back, and raise the drop screw end as it= rode up on the rail.  Of course, this necessitated readjusting the cap= stan, letoff, and drop.  After that, no more click on the bench!  =  Almost home! The action goes back into the piano, and it clicks just like it did before.=  The work process is interrupted at this point by a short stream of un= printable comments.  The action comes out, and I can’t make it cl= ick for love or money.  Back in, and it clicks on a keystroke that&#821= 7;s barely mf.  Okay, think now.  It must be something in the pian= o that’s making the noise.  Dampers!  Hold the damper up, pl= ay the note.  No click.  Aha again!  Pull the action out, wor= k the damper.  No click.  Work the damper really hard.  No cl= ick.  I notice that the dampers on the clicking notes travel up quite a= bit farther than their neighbors.  Finally the light comes on.  E= arlier, in regulating the sostenuto, I had bent the bracket down to get the = bar properly lined up with the tabs.  It didn’t work at all befor= e I started working on it during semester break, and it doesn’t work n= ow.  But the click sure went away after I bent the bracket back up! &nb= sp;The underlever was, of course, hitting the sostenuto bar.  I don&#82= 17;t think I ever heard the jack hit the flange when the action was in the p= iano, and I’m not sure I ever played the notes hard enough to make it = hit.  It was a rather effective distracter, though. Now I just hope the pianist for the Amadeus Trio won’t need the soste= nuto Friday night.  I don’t think it’s going to work until = I replace the underlever action, and that’s not going to happen this w= eek.  Boy, I’m glad this is over. Ken Z. -- Ken Zahringer, RPT Piano Technician University of Missouri School of Music 297 Fine Arts Bldg Columbia, MO 65211 573-882-1202 cell 573-489-7529 </BODY> </HTML>