damper tray got high

[Tom Sivak]

List
   
  Another question on this Mason AA I'm rebuilding...(thanks to all for you posts on key end felts)  
   
  I confess that the damper action is part of pianos that I have little experience with.  I've regulated dampers and damper lift enough to know my way around, but the actual damper action, the tray and levers, is something I haven't had to play with yet.  
   
  The damper tray on this Mason will not stay in the down position.  It's almost as if there's a spring holding the thing up.  I can push it down till it comes in contact with the pitman, and it goes down with very little resistance (again, it feels as if it's on a spring), but as soon as you let go, it comes back up till it's touching the bottom of the damper levers.  As a result, some of the dampers are being held up by it, and will not dampen properly.  If I push the tray down, ALL the dampers dampen perfectly.
   
  I don't think the problem is the damper blocks being too low (and thus the tray being at the right height, albeit hanging in air by itself).  They are already higher than they used to be, due to the new key end felts I've installed.  I even had to raise the upstop rail to give them enough travel.  And I have them lifting from the keysticks at the proper time, although it's been difficult to get them all to lift exactly together, due to the fact that the damper tray is too high.
   
  Wha'ts up with this?  I can't imagine that there actually IS a spring in there, holding the tray up.  If anything, I would expect there to be a spring holding the tray DOWN, allowing it to be lifted by the pedal, and then return downward with the aid of a spring.  I have taken a damper tray out before (once) so I could probably do it again, but I thought I'd ask first, and maybe I don't have to.  (This is the type of damper assembly where the levers are glued to the tray, so I would just as soon not have to take the thing out and possibly risk having some of them come loose.)
  
Help?
   
  Tom Sivak
  Chicago
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