Chain - Installing W/ Basic Tools

[IntAceptor]

After 27 K miles, I decided it was time to replace my chain (hey, good cleanings and lots of lube). ?So WITHOUT having the fancy chain breaker / flaring tool, I forged on knowing with a bit of creativity I could do the job. ?I shagged a chain / sprocket kit last Christmas and now I was going put it into use.

I removed the rear wheel and the side plate that holds the clutch actuator and the speed sensor pick up unit. ?There are 4 ? 8MM bolts holding the plate on with two the same length and the other two shorter. ?One by just a little bit and the other by a lot. ?Remember which is which so the unit goes back on easily.

I cleaned all the road gunk out of the front sproket housing and moved on to the next step.

Break loose both the front and rear sprocket holding nuts with the bike in gear before taking off the old chain. ?That makes the job easier.

Here is a picture of my two chain breakers. ?I used the big red one but the smaller one would work fine also. ?Move the chain adjuster on the rear hub as far forward as it will go so the new chain diesn't fight you going on.

I greased up the teeth on the front sprocket driving shaft before putting on the front sprocket. The new chain was threaded in place and the new master link was ready for installation.

Put two ?O? rings on first and then grease the master link pins as well as the holes in the new chain?s links they will be going into. ?Then install it and put two more ?O? rings on the pins once the master link is in place.

I measured the chain?s width at across a number of side plates with a dial caliper and came up with an average figure of .890 inch. ?That is how far I wanted to press the new side plate on to the pins and no futher.

I thought about a variety of ?pressing tools? that included ?C? clamps, pipe clamps, a mini-vise but ultimately settled on a large pair of curved jaw vise grips. ?I feel that a good wood pipe clamp (that is used to clamp sections of wood together) would work as well as the vise grips but you would have to use a template to fit the width of ?the link you are working with so the wider jaws wouldn?t contact the neighbor links.

The side plate started on nicely but you could only go to the point where the pins get to the far end of the side plate until the vise grip jaws interfere with pressing it on any further. ?At that point I took a piece of steel I had, drilled holes in it that matched the holes in the side plate but larger and continued pressing the plate on the pins by being sure the vise grips were parallel and turning them no more than ? turn tighter each squeeze.

I proceeded very slowly and took measurements as the plate was squeezed on. ?When I got to .890 I stopped. ?Now the plate was on the same distance as the others.

The next hurtle was to come up with a means of flaring the pins.

I took a ? inch bolt and ground the end off at about a 60 degree angle and cut it off to about 3/8 inch long.

The angled end was placed in the end of the master link pin and the vise grips were put back to use to squeeze the fabricated tip into the pin. ?I was always careful to be sure the opposite end of the vise grips were contacting the far end of the pin only and not the opposite side plate while doing any squeezing. ?This process started the flare at the end of the pin that would insure the side plate stayed in place. ?I then traded the angled bolt for a ball bearing which further flared the pin.

The flare doesn?t have to be huge. ?Just enough to stop the side plate from moving from the position you set it in. ?The plate itself is a very tight machine fit and it doesn?t take much at all to keep it in place.

The clutch side plate was then put back into position.

The speed sensor pick up looks like a 6 point socket that fits over the front sprocket securing nut and spins along with that nut. ?I noticed the nut didn?t seat into it as far as I would like it to so I took the clutch side plate back off, removed the sprocket nut and added another washer to the sprocket nut to set it out a bit further so it would sit in the sensor a bit deeper. ?Probably not necessary but it just made me feel better.

Everything was re-composed, all bolts torqued to spec, the chain was adjusted and off I rode into the sunset. ?It was like riding a new bike.

[HispanicSlammer]

After 27 K miles, I decided it was time to replace my chain (hey, good cleanings and lots of lube). ?So WITHOUT having the fancy chain breaker / flaring tool, I forged on knowing with a bit of creativity I could do the job. ?I shagged a chain / sprocket kit last Christmas and now I was going put it into use.

I removed the rear wheel and the side plate that holds the clutch actuator and the speed sensor pick up unit. ?There are 4 ? 8MM bolts holding the plate on with two the same length and the other two shorter. ?One by just a little bit and the other by a lot. ?Remember which is which so the unit goes back on easily.

With the plate off I noticed the bike had grown a lot of hair so it needed a shave. ?I fired up my can of Burma Shave and lathered it up. ?Or was that engine degreaser to get rid of all of the gunk that collected in there from all that chain lube. ?Hosing off the junk gunk gave me a clean area to work on.

Break loose both the front and rear sprocket holding nuts with the bike in gear before taking off the old chain. ?That makes the job easier.

Here is a picture of my two chain breakers. ?I used the big red one but the smaller one would work fine also. ?Move the chain adjuster on the rear hub as far forward as it will go so the new chain diesn't fight you going on.

I greased up the teeth on the front sprocket driving shaft before putting on the front sprocket. The new chain was threaded in place and the new master link was ready for installation.

Put two ?O? rings on first and then grease the master link pins as well as the holes in the new chain?s links they will be going into. ?Then install it and put two more ?O? rings on the pins once the master link is in place.

I measured the chain?s width at across a number of side plates with a dial caliper and came up with an average figure of .890 inch. ?That is how far I wanted to press the new side plate on to the pins and no futher.

I thought about a variety of ?pressing tools? that included ?C? clamps, pipe clamps, a mini-vise but ultimately settled on a large pair of curved jaw vise grips. ?I feel that a good wood pipe clamp (that is used to clamp sections of wood together) would work as well as the vise grips but you would have to use a template to fit the width of ?the link you are working with so the wider jaws wouldn?t contact the neighbor links.

The side plate started on nicely but you could only go to the point where the pins get to the far end of the side plate until the vise grip jaws interfere with pressing it on any further. ?At that point I took a piece of steel I had, drilled holes in it that matched the holes in the side plate but larger and continued pressing the plate on the pins by being sure the vise grips were parallel and turning them no more than ? turn tighter each squeeze.

I proceeded very slowly and took measurements as the plate was squeezed on. ?When I got to .890 I stopped. ?Now the plate was on the same distance as the others.

The next hurtle was to come up with a means of flaring the pins.

I took a ? inch bolt and ground the end off at about a 60 degree angle and cut it off to about 3/8 inch long.

The angled end was placed in the end of the master link pin and the vise grips were put back to use to squeeze the fabricated tip into the pin. ?I was always careful to be sure the opposite end of the vise grips were contacting the far end of the pin only and not the opposite side plate while doing any squeezing. ?This process started the flare at the end of the pin that would insure the side plate stayed in place. ?I then traded the angled bolt for a ball bearing which further flared the pin.

The flare doesn?t have to be huge. ?Just enough to stop the side plate from moving from the position you set it in. ?The plate itself is a very tight machine fit and it doesn?t take much at all to keep it in place.

The clutch side plate was then put back into position.

The speed sensor pick up looks like a 6 point socket that fits over the front sprocket securing nut and spins along with that nut. ?I noticed the nut didn?t seat into it as far as I would like it to so I took the clutch side plate back off, removed the sprocket nut and added another washer to the sprocket nut to set it out a bit further so it would sit in the sensor a bit deeper. ?Probably not necessary but it just made me feel better.

Everything was re-composed, all bolts torqued to spec, the chain was adjusted and off I rode into the sunset. ?It was like riding a new bike.