Thank you to those who responded to my request for help with my
Ampico action cutout problem [181102 MMDigest].  I have worked my
way through all of the suggestions with no success.  Everything else
in the drawer is working correctly and I have traced all the lines,
looking for leaks.  Using my suck tube, there seems to be no problem
with the cutoff pouch in the distributor block or the valve and pouch
in the cutoff block.

The cutoff block is getting suction supply from the distributor block
and the valve is lifting on reroll.  The transmission frame itself is
a replacement and is in good order.  Moving the Tempo slide back to
zero will still eventually force the action into play but I have to do
this each time I play a roll, and the time it takes to click into Play
is erratic.

A possible further complication is that the piano stack does have the
two extra valve units mentioned by Reblitz on page 160.  They are teed
together and into the line connecting to the cutoff primary valve
block  and then to the cutoff pouch in the distributor block.  They
are apparently intended to stop the last playing note playing again on
rewind.  I have checked these lines for leaks and found nothing.  Could
this system be the culprit and can it be bypassed?

The tubing in the drawer differs from the tubing in David Saul's drawing
of the Model A drawer connections, but I have now traced all the lines
and they appear to be working the action cutoff, the repeat, the on/off
switch and reroll successfully.  The repeat works, but will not push the
action into play unless I return the Tempo slide to zero.  The Rewind
lever exposes the port in the transmission frame and successfully locks
on the action cutoff during rewind.

But what, then, cancels the cutoff when the lever is pushed back into
play?  Can anyone steer me in the right direction?  Could it be some
problem with the governor, given that the Tempo slide can still force
the action into play?

One good thing is that, after two weeks crawling around under the
piano, I now have a much better understanding of how it all works.
But it would be good to get it working properly from the start.

Robert Nicol

 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/18/11/11/181111_224610_Chickering%20Right%20Drawer.jpg