Drive Chain Tension Question

[Chilly Willy]

Hi All,

I replaced my OEM shock with a Kat 6 shock yesterday.  As a result, though, I now have far too little chain tension.

I've read my Clymer manual and the multiple posts on this board and it seems like a fairly straight forward process.

One of the posts, however, mentioned the necessity of having the bike on its side stand during this process.  I'm not sure I understand why that would need to be the case--especially since I would want everything to be centered and aligned.  Why would I not have the bike on its center stand then?

Thanks,

Chilly Willy

[scratch]

The weight of the motorcycle changes the tension on the chain, thus you want to adjust the tension on the sidestand.  Alignment is simply controlled by turning the adjusters the same amount on both sides (one revolution on the left = one revolution on the right).

[Chilly Willy]

Cool, thank you--that makes perfect sense!

Chilly Willy

[Chilly Willy]

"Do I tighten the adjusters to tighten the chain or do I loosen the adjusters to tighten the chain?--That is the question."  Hamlet

Chilly Willy

[ajaxgs]

clock-wise

[RVertigo]

Tighten...  A LITTLE at a time...

1/4 L side, 1/4 R side... Check...  1/4, 1/4...  Check...  1/4, 1/4... Check.

If you crank it, you run the risk of going to far...  And it's not as easy to loosen the chain as it is to tighten it.

[ajaxgs]

Tighten... A LITTLE at a time...

1/4 L side, 1/4 R side... Check... 1/4, 1/4... Check... 1/4, 1/4... Check.

If you crank it, you run the risk of going to far... And it's not as easy to loosen the chain as it is to tighten it.

+1

[Chilly Willy]

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC&&&&&&&&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is so frustrating!  I can't get everything to line up right!  I've tried counting threads, I've tried using the v-notch, and I can't get the damn thing to line up right.  The notches on the right won't line up with the notches on the left.  I've gotten the chain to the right tension, but it's still off balance when I throw the bike up on the center stand and run the engine in first gear.  Now the tire is rubbing on the bar on the right.

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!

Chilly Willy

[Chilly Willy]

Any suggestions now that I've goofed up this job?

[annguyen1981]

tighten the right side, if I understand your predicament correctly.

[Jarrett]

Start over.  Next time you're doing a job like that, take some pictures of the origional postion of the ticks  before you start.  That way you can always return to the default position and start over easily.  If you don't have a digital camera, draw a picture.  That's what I use to do back in the day when I use to have to walk 2 no 4 no 6 miles to school in 9 feet of snow.

[mjn12]

I was actually doing this the other day, my room mate wanted to help (even though he knows nothing about this stuff and was just bored). I expected him to just hand me a wrench when I asked for it and keep me company.  Instead I walked away and I come back and hes cranking on one of the adjuster nuts.  I flipped cuz he wasn't counting turns or anything and the alignment was all effed up.  He had to have a good 5 or 6 turns on just one side.

Anyways, after I made him go away and I chilled I did some searching on here and found a solution.  Get a tape measure or ruler and measure from one end of the swingarm to the cener of the axel bolt then do it on the other side and adjust accordingly. 

Heres the diagram cuz when I read it I had to think about it for a minute before I realized what I should be measuring.  Maybe I was still a little to pissed at my room mate to think good.

--------------------------------
                       O      |        <-- Swingarm (side view)
--------------------------------

                        |------|   <-- measure that distance

[Chilly Willy]

Thanks everyone,

I tried the measuring technique after reading some past posts.  So far, I seem to have gone from bad to worse with this adjustment.  I'm thinking that the new shock (Katana 600) is changing the tension on the swing arm, thus the source of my problems.  If I disconnect the shock, would I be able to place the indicator plates back at the factory setting, reconnect the shock, and then start from there?  Right now, I can't even rotate the tire while it's in neutral.  The tire is rubbing too much on the black rear brake bar support.

Your thoughts?

Chilly

[makenzie71]

no no no you're thinking so hard it makes MY head hurt.

Don't count threads...don't measure...don't do anything more technically involved than turning the wrench.  Loosen the brake rotor side up a good bit.  After it's loose, tighten the sprocket side until there's about 1.25~1.5" of slack in the chain, measured halfway up the swingarm.  Then tighten brake rotor side.

If you don't come up nearly perfectly aligned with the propper amount of slack, which will suprise me, simply loosen the sprocket side a bit, and tighten the brake rotor side and bit.  Repeat as necessary.

[CirclesCenter]

no no no you're thinking so hard it makes MY head hurt.

Don't count threads...don't measure...don't do anything more technically involved than turning the wrench.  Loosen the brake rotor side up a good bit.  After it's loose, tighten the sprocket side until there's about 1.25~1.5" of slack in the chain, measured halfway up the swingarm.  Then tighten brake rotor side.

If you don't come up nearly perfectly aligned with the propper amount of slack, which will suprise me, simply loosen the sprocket side a bit, and tighten the brake rotor side and bit.  Repeat as necessary.

I had to re-read that to understand how it worked. Seemed counter-intuitive. But when you think it's like....

DUH!!!!!!!!!!!

+1 for Mak's method. (Which is now the Circle's Center Method.)

[MarkusN]

One thing to bear in mind: If the different shock causes the swingarm to stand at a steeper angle (harder spring or longer shock), the original specification for chain slack may not be correct anymore.

The chain is tightest when sprocket axle, swingarm axle and rear wheel axle all aling on one straight line. At that point you still need minimal chain slack, just more than zero. As the swingarm swings down from that position, the slack increases. Obviously more, if the swingarm swings down more.

So, if you installed a different shock listen very carfully for grinding noises from the sprocket, especially when heavily loaded. If you hear anything of the kind, slacken the chain a bit more.

[Chilly Willy]

no no no you're thinking so hard it makes MY head hurt.

Don't count threads...don't measure...don't do anything more technically involved than turning the wrench.  Loosen the brake rotor side up a good bit.  After it's loose, tighten the sprocket side until there's about 1.25~1.5" of slack in the chain, measured halfway up the swingarm.  Then tighten brake rotor side.

If you don't come up nearly perfectly aligned with the propper amount of slack, which will suprise me, simply loosen the sprocket side a bit, and tighten the brake rotor side and bit.  Repeat as necessary.

Hi Mak,

Thanks for the reply.  I've given this method a try and am still stuck.  One of the problems I'm running into is that the brake rotor side swing arm indicator plate shifted dramatically yesterday when I loosened the adjustment nut (the plate moved towards the end of the swing arm).  Since then, I can't get the plate to move much at all no matter how much I'm wrenching on it--either loosening or tightening (yes, the axle nut is loose when I'm doing this). 

I'm wondering if the new stiff shock is drawing the wheel more towards it (thus the initial loose chain and the fact that the tire is now jammed up against the brake cluster support arm)?  That's why I was wondering about unbolting the bottom of the shock to relieve the "draw."

Damn, and my Haynes manual only gives chain ajustment one wrench for difficulty.

Chilly

[makenzie71]

you're still thinking too hard...

If the rotor side wheel adjuster isn't moving, you've probably got it bound up.  Put the bike on the center stand and loosen both sides up, and loosen the wheel's axle.  After you do this you should be able to move the adjuster easily with a rubber mallet, or a hammer and a small piece of wood, and put it back into place.  If you can't place it, after loosening everything, you'll need to pull the axle to completely unstress the adjuster (it's supporting half the wheel at all times) and then reset it.  At this point I'd actually suggest taking it all apart and starting from scratch anyway.

The shock can not "draw the wheel closer to it".  It's nover going to leave the designed tolerences without structural alteration to the swingarm.  The shock isn't the problem...you simply don't know what you're doing.

It might help if you could gets us some decent pictures of both adjusters and the swingarm so we can see if there's something noticeably wrong.

[Chilly Willy]

you're still thinking too hard...

The shock isn't the problem...you simply don't know what you're doing.

It might help if you could gets us some decent pictures of both adjusters and the swingarm so we can see if there's something noticeably wrong.

That is definitely true!   I'll grab some pictures after work.

Chilly

[che mike]

I think we need more information on what you're having trouble with.

Keep in mind that the adjuster nuts can only pull the axle back, they can't push it forward. so if one side is too tight, you have to loosen that side's nut a lot. put the bike on the centerstand. sit down behind the bike and give the tire a kick (careful, don't knock the damn thing off the centerstand) forward, then you can use the nuts again to pull the wheel back to where it should be.

If the wheel is misaligned already I would probably measure, as someone said from the swingarm bolt to the axle on each side.

If you're still having trouble you'll have to give more information.