Graphited bushings

[Mike and Jane Spalding]

List,

I had an appointment this morning to voice a Kawai grand for a new customer, a teacher.  She also asked me to fix a "ringer", damper not seating reliably.  Actually, there was a whole bunch of dampers that would seat on a hard staccato blow, but on a gentle release would not come all the way down.  I pulled one out, and found a black deposit on the wire (where it should have been polished from the bushing), and a pile of graphite powder on the guide rail around the bushing.  Yes, she remebers now, a tuner had lubricated the sticky dampers for her several years ago...

So here's my question - I know I'll have to remove the dampers and the guide rail to fix this problem.  Obviously, I'll polish the damper wires.  Can I clean the graphite out of the bushings, say with naptha and a pipe cleaner, or should I just go ahead and re-bush?  The bushings don't seem to have any excess play in them, so I'd like to save her some money by just cleaning and lubing, but not if this is going to come back and bite me in the butt in a couple of years.  What do you think?

thanks,

Mike