Damper setup on a 200.

[DoctorTeeth]

Hi all,

This is my first post, but i will begin by thanking all of you folks for the wealth of info this forum has to offer. I bought a project 200 and tore the whole thing down, did the protek lube job for all the action points/damper combs (big help!!), cleaned all the keyposts up and polished em all with flitz, cleaned out all the dust and dead spiders,lightly brushed the key bushings with a tooth brush, and put it all back togehter, not only does it work, but it actually works better than it did before i messed with it!

The main hangups i have with the project at this point is the dampers....the previous owner i think made some "adjustments" and ive been tryin to follow protocol in terms of the service manual (i work as a guitar tech/keyboard tech for touring bands so im not a total greenhorn, but i know more about guitar work). The first issue i had was that the bass side of the dampers were all working great, as well as the first 4 or so of the trebel side, no matter how much i adjusted the damper screws on the dampers to try and get them to make proper contact with the reeds it was to no avail. So i thought id adjust the whole damper via the 7/16th nut on the sustain spring/assembly, after giving it a whole turn i was able to get all the dampers set right....BUT now that ive hooked a sustain pedal to it (it didnt come with one) i cant seem to get the dampers to lift when i press the sustain pedal down (i have adjusted the cable in the pedal some for greater pull). When i do press the sustain pedal it changes the key height all over the board (seemingly at random- but im sure there is a reason for this) and the dampers dont appear to lift freely like ive seen in some video tutorials. Could this be caused by the treble half of the dampers not moving freely in the L bracket that holds it to the harp, because it seems to be fairly siezed up on one side....? i know this is a lot of info, but if anyone could point me in the right direction so im not endlessly going in circles with the setup id really be thankful.

[DoctorTeeth]

I went ahead and adjusted the 7/16th sustain bolt again so its tighter and now have the pedal lifting the dampers, but it seems like some of the springs on the stickers (which are all different sizes) seem to be too stiff which more or less bottoms out the key by pushing the whole whip down (from the back) at the same time the damper combs go up, some of the keys with shorter springs on their stickers do not dip, the screws travel up through the damper grommet and they function as youd expect a key to with a sustain pedal activated....could it be the spring sizes throwing this puppy out of wack?

[DoctorTeeth]

After watching the vintage vibe video on adjusting the sustain pedal again it seems that the particular wurli they showcase has no springs at all on the tops of the stickers........should these even be here? They dont seem to be in any of the technical drawings in the manual....and the extra whips i purchased didnt come with these springs either, just the usual jack spring. I cant seem to resize my images enough to get them to upload as attachments. Just for clarity's sake the springs i am talking about are under the damper grommet on the top end of the sticker with the damper regulation screw going through it...maybe this was ment to be a quick and dirty fix for its really sluggish action it had when i bought it?

[DoctorTeeth]

I think I have answered my own question. Im taking these springs off, im very happy that i didnt destroy anything messing with the sustain pedal with these things on! That could have been bad.

[sean]

I am surprised that nobody here spoke up, but I am glad you decided to remove the springs from the damper screws. 

Please post some photos of them before they are lost to history.   I have never seen such a thing, and don't see it in the Wurly docs I have.

Sean

[DoctorTeeth]

https://imgur.com/gallery/OwZCJha

There you go. I couldnt figure out how to convert my image type...luckily it all came out well! The wurli is much much happier now. Today i did the transformer ac shielding mod, and i made a new pickup cable the other day with some scrap xlr, what a difference those two things made!!!

Any suggestions on what type of easing tool i should get for my key bushings? Im having a seemingly common issue of the keys not returning properly with the sustain pedal depressed. 

[pianotuner steveo]

Sorry, just saw this today...
If you remove a damper arm and flip it over, are there any springs there?

This is definitely a poorly done mod. I'm surprised they didn't break any of the wooden stickers while doing this. They are fragile.

[DoctorTeeth]

Yes, the damper arms luckily all still have their resective springs. I was very very careful removing the damper regulation screws, and when i went to put them back in i held the sticker with one hand and then rotated the screw backwards with the other (lefty lucy) until i felt it "hop" on the threading in the wood on the sticker and then was able to more or less use my hands to get the damper screw back in. This helped align the threads with the ones already in the wood and made for a much easier replacement....

[pianotuner steveo]

Ok, I thought maybe those springs broke off or were removed for some reason.