CAUT

Salutations all,

Today I took home a recent model Estonia lyre to reglue the creaky joints. I need to get the pedal rods off and out of the way, but they're firmly connected to the pedals with some kind of ball joint encased in plastic or silicone. 

I don't want to force them off, but I imagine there must be a way to disconnect them, right?

thanks!

Salutations all,

Today I took home a recent model Estonia lyre to reglue the creaky joints. I need to get the pedal rods off and out of the way, but they're firmly connected to the pedals with some kind of ball joint encased in plastic or silicone. 

I don't want to force them off, but I imagine there must be a way to disconnect them, right?

thanks!

Salutations all,

Today I took home a recent model Estonia lyre to reglue the creaky joints. I need to get the pedal rods off and out of the way, but they're firmly connected to the pedals with some kind of ball joint encased in plastic or silicone. 

I don't want to force them off, but I imagine there must be a way to disconnect them, right?

thanks!

Fred,

Thanks for the reply. Here's the upshot:

First, the pedal rods turned out to be easy--just remove the bottom panel of the pedal box, remove the adjuster nuts from the pedal rods, and the pedal/rods slide right out.

The real problem, I believe, is a manufacturing defect. The problem of squeaking is induced by twisting the posts, and I don't think the joints actually loosened up. Why the squeaking started to manifest recently is a mystery. The owner's theory is that it's a result of having the piano moved, with the lyre used to stand the piano up. I don't think that's the case.

However, the construction is generally rock-solid, and there are bolstering screws going in at an angle, which I removed to try to get the lyre apart. (Note that while there are wedges at the pedal box joints there are none at the top joints.) Those joints would not budge, and there is no up-down movement. At the upper joints, there is a very slight space at the back. Had joint separation been induced by playing, the lyre would have been pushed back, leading to a space at the front, right? Same at the bottom, though the space is not visible. I've fixed loose lyre joints, and you can see the joint moving. Not on this one.

My diagnosis is that the vertical beams, were not faced correctly. The surfaces were not planed 90 degrees to the tenons (or maybe mortises in the capital). Even if I could loosen the joint, there's no way to get all sides of the parts to mate perfectly.  Perhaps the lower joints are simply glue-starved.

My solution, since the piano is under warranty (and since my mucking about more with it might void that warranty, not to mention cause actual obvious damage...) was to advise the owner to contact the dealer. Sometimes you gotta punt.

Salutations all,

Today I took home a recent model Estonia lyre to reglue the creaky joints. I need to get the pedal rods off and out of the way, but they're firmly connected to the pedals with some kind of ball joint encased in plastic or silicone. 

I don't want to force them off, but I imagine there must be a way to disconnect them, right?

thanks!