bent adjusters

[bassman]

Blimey you lot, if you all worked as mechanics in the same garage, the customers would all be standing around watching you'all bashing each other with spanners and squirting beer at each other!

I'll be a creep and say I'm with sledge on this one.  If you ever pulled the drive adjuster components out of each swingarm tube and assessed the thickness and strength of each component, they are clearly designed to work in tandem with the Axle to keep the wheel in place and thereby maintain the drive chain adjustment.  The internal drive chain adjuster components, along with the external Drive adjuster plates, clearly do not just perform the function of setting the drive chain tension, but also stop the Axle/Axle nut from deforming the swingarm tubes when the Axle nut is tightened.  All need to be buttoned up tight and torqued to specification to stop any movement of the rear wheel.

I'll tell you what I consider to be the best tools in my motorcycle tool kit...drumroll...a Haines Manual and a Torque Wrench (and this website).  I love my Torque Wrench.  I feel almost like a professional when I'm wielding 'me trusty Torque Wrench!   I'm no muscle man but I've stripped car wheel nuts before because it's so easy to over tighten nuts and bolts - especially if you've got a lot of leverage with a long handled tyre iron!!

If one is going to do one's own maintenance it is absolutely essential one has the right tools and a good reference manual. I've also downloaded a gs500 workshop manual which is invaluable for torque settings and workshop methods that the Haines Manual doesn't cover.  I work on my GS very cautiously now because a kind of madness overtakes me when a nut won't loosen, or such like, and I invariably end up doing something stupid and ill-advised.

I suspect craftierod had either an Axle nut overtightening or under tightening issue.  Before I acquired my Torques Wrench I nearly wrestled the bike off the centrestand several times because I had over-tightened the Axle nut.

Just a word about those Drive chain adjuster plates - they're sh*t for adjusting the tracking of the rear wheel .  I simply match the length of the adjuster bolt each side (having first established that both adjuster bolts were of identical length).  Forget string and and big compasses, etc.  The adjust plate is no good for anything other than helping to keep the Axle in place and to give a rough guesstimate of how much adjustment you've got left in your chain.

bassman