<html> <body> Wim, Reading the replies you've gotten, I think Ed Foote and Jon Page gave you good advice on lowering the pivot pins to potentially reduce some of the angle on the underlevers. Now, what Eric and I are talking about - the pitman - is indeed the brass rod (in the old-style) that slides through a bushed hole in the keybed to connect the damper pedal to the tray. In newer Steinways, that brass rod has been replaced with a wooden dowel and the hole in the keybed is drilled out to about 1-1/2 inches in diameter. 3/4"-diameter recesses (about 1/4" deep) are drilled in the top of the damper trap lever and the underside of the tray to hold the dowel (which has cloth punchings glued on each end) in place. This eliminates noise in the pedal mechanism. Susan Graham did an article about making this conversion some years ago in PTJ. It's worth doing. Mary At 12:36 PM 9/11/2003 -0400, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>In a message dated 9/11/03 11:26:18 AM Central Daylight Time, marysmith@mail.utexas.edu writes: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>SO even if you lower the tray,the flanges might still need to be at 1-1/2" to get proper lift. But, as Fred and Eric have correctly pointed out, you really need to break down and replace the back action, and convert that rascal pitman. If you're not ready to replace the back action, for budget or time reasons, then replace the key end felt again, see if you can wiggle the underlever height a bit, and convert the pitman anyway. </blockquote> Let me see if I can understand this.  I realize the angle of the lever, as Fred sais, is "the angle of the levers as the manner in which the two arcs intercept - arcs of underlever versus arc of key". That is why the lever is digging into the lifter felt. That is why I want to lower the tray, to reduce that angle, and at the same time lower the height of the lever to 1 1/2".  But isn't the pitman the block of wood into which the tray is attached by the pin? So if I lower the pivot point, I will lower the tray. The question I have is, how much should I lower the pivot point to lower the height of the lever an 1/8"? And I should, I presume, cut off the block and redrill the screw holes, right? Wim </blockquote></body> </html>