Stiff Damper Rail

[tom]

Jim,
	First---Lose the graphite-- The stuff is evil!
	Protek, Goose juice, powdered Teflon---anything but graphite. 
	This action will come out easily. You say the damper rod is stiff.
Is it stiff from seized bushings at the hangers? Are the damper springs
collectively too strong? Is the spring rail too close to the damper levers?
Take a look ---the piano will tell you what to do.
	To quote Yogi Berra   "You can observe a lot by looking"
	Tom Driscoll RPT

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Jim Keaney
Sent: Monday, February 26, 2007 9:10 PM
To: pianotech
Subject: Stiff Damper Rail

I was tuning a small no-name console piano, and noticed that the  
sustain pedal was not working properly. Well, the problem is a very  
stiff damper lift rod. I was unable to lubricate it using some liquid  
graphite, and I'm wondering if I need to remove all the dampers just  
to lube to the rod. Does anyone hopefully have a much simpler solution?

Thanks!
Jim Keaney