Hi Greg I have the sense the rails were probably in the right place (or at least quite an acceptable one) with the old parts installed. So it strikes me that moving the rails would be my last resort. I'd like to see a pic of the whippen and shank with the key in rest position and at full blow. (grin... without the thumb... tho I see what you were demonstrating) I'd also like to see a pic of the whippen cushion on the capstan at rest. Is the jack a bit angled in towards the knuckle core at rest position ? Looks to me, tho its hard to tell from the pic, that the drop screw is kinda way out towards the end of the leather cushion on the whippen. I'm wondering if the distance from the center of your shank flange screw to the shank flange center pin is also different from your origional parts. I've run into this a few times through the years. The combination of the center pin being 1 mm farther out from the flange screw and the knuckle itself being about 1 mm farther out makes things interesting even with the original whippens. If so, see if you can get the old parts. You can exchange shank flanges and get at least that that bit out of the way. This might also correct any angle change in the flanges caused by the different profile. Thing is... if the knuckle ends up being a combined 2 + mm farther out on the whippen rep lever.. then the whole shank sits lower down on the arm. Thats going to put your jack closer in contact with the flange at full blow unless I'm mistaken. Cheers RicB Ric & List, I guess what I haven't said so far is that this struggling music department in an all girls Catholic high school (privately funded) didn't have the money for the restoration in the first place (not my fault) and therefore the bean counters (not the music director) went with the cheapest estimate. Because I do a fair amount of other work for this music director at the school I'm inclined to do what I can without cheating myself. As mentioned I do have to return and take a good look at the dampers. Something is quite messed up here and for now it's a somewhat fun little puzzle. Even with a few properly regulated keys I still get a little jack slap. I know that I could simply put a thicker felt in the jack window but what I'm really after here is why this is happening. Is there a better way to go about this than simply shimming things? If I could move the rails should I? Greg
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