I have been playing a Rogers Luxor snare for about 20 years. I cleaned the strainer mechanism (a while ago) and the strainer began to rattle when played with the snare disengaged. It seems that some of the dirt was keeping the metal parts from bumping against each other.

I have been playing it for a while with some cotton string wrapped around the central post, keeping the metal parts apart. It works but makes the strainer very hard to operate.

Is there a better way to do this?

Thanks!