[pianotech] Baldwin Pedal with squeaky rubber grommet

[Dean May]

Hi Loren

Welcome to the list. Lots of wisdom, lots of opinions, lots of curmudgeons.
:-)

I suspect your squeak is not coming from where you think. That joint of lift
rod to the back of pedal is always the first one I condemn as being the
cause, it it almost never is. I've found the two most common are the pedal
pivots and the connection at the top of the lift rod. Other places to look
obviously are at all the trap work pivots and every place with sliding
friction.  


Dean

Dean W May                (812) 235-5272

PianoRebuilders.com    (888) DEAN-MAY

Terre Haute IN 47802



-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Loren Kelley
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2011 1:13 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: [pianotech] Baldwin Pedal with squeaky rubber grommet

Hello Everyone ~

I'm new to this list.  It's fun to read all the stuff that goes back and
forth.

Last month I tuned a Baldwin Grand (dang, I didn't get the serial #) that
had a pedal noise.  The damper pedal had a sort of squeak where the lift rod
sits in a rubber grommet.  I could not lift the rod out of the grommet
because there was a pin holding it in, like a center pin.  I wanted to
remove it so I could do a good job of lubricating it, but no luck.  I tried
to use my center pin tool, but the other pedal was too close and interfered.

I ended up spraying dry teflon into it as I flexed it, trying to help the
stuff get down into the grommet.  It worked at the time, but the customer
called back recently and said the sound was back.  She said that other techs
had fixed it before, but it comes back.  I'm guessing they had the same
problem I did.

Perhaps it is necessary to remove the pedal lyre and disassemble it, remove
the pedal and then use the centerpin tool on it?

Anybody dealt with this before?  Any ideas for getting the pin out in order
to remove the lift rod?

Loren Kelley