Chain Adjustment

[61 panman]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this but how do you people adjust your chains. With the rear wheel jacked up or on the ground.
I have always done it with the wheel up then put the bike down and sat on it to check the tension. Usually ad nauseum. I usually lube it at this time also. I saw someone adjust one with the bike on the ground and he just pounded the wheel foward with a rubber mallet. All the manuals I checked did not specify either way. This is on a bike with no centerstand.
Thank You in anticipation,
Doug

[Hrdly-Dangrs]

Fat Brother In-Law

Best done while your Fat brother-in law is sitting on it!. After bugging you all summer to "take it for a ride"...(that ain't ever gonna happen!).... ...Hrdly-Dangrs

[k.perry]

It's better if you can lift the rear wheel. You can purchase a Duo-Lift ( paralleogram) collapsable for around a hundred bucks, from most aftermarket H-D shops. There is a self-correcting feature about the big Twin rear axle gussets. No matter how you set the wheel position and rear chain tension using the axle adjusting screws, as soon as you tighten the brake sleeve nut and anchor stud nut, the wheel will re-adjust because of the assembly being drawn, squared to the rear frame gusset plates. Having the rear wheel off the ground means you will only have to re-adjust the chain tension (1/2" free-play at the chains slack position of rotation) a couple of times versus three or four times if you have the wheel on the ground. Careful not to run the axle adjusting screws "in", anymore than originally set. Of course, after tightening the brake sleeve, axel and anchor stud nut, at least one of your axel adjusting screws will show an air gap (due to the self-correction). Run this backed-off screw up gently to just touch the spacer, then tighten the lock nuts without letting the axel screws move inward from their FIXED POSITION. Letting these axel screws tighten further while tightening the lock nuts will force the wheel back as soon as you ride the machine, no matter how tight you have the axel and anchor stud nuts.

[Hrdly-Dangrs]

NO OFFENSE....Chain Adjustment

Either way, on the ground or off....best to have the rear swingarm (if its a swingarm rearend) go thru as much of the travel limit as possible while checking overall chain tension. This is where the Fat Brother-in-Law Theory comes in hand. To all Fat Brother-in-Laws out there.....NO OFFENSE!.....If you can do this chain adjustment proceedure yourself while sitting on your own motorcycle...and your somebody elses Brother-in-Law.....NO OFFENSE!!...... .....Hrdly-Dangrs

[61 panman]

Kirk, thank you for your informative post. I do have one of those lifts ( the Duo-lift) and it does work great. There is always a tense moment when the wheels leave the ground and I am pushing on the lever while trying to keep that big slob(the bike) upright, it is a moment of no return as if I do not keep the pressure on the lever I am in trouble. But it does always go up.
And Hardly I am having a little trouble getting mechanical advice from someone who could not get his bike down off the jack. It sounds like those beers were calling more loudly than the call of the wild
Maybe you should get your calorically challenged bro in law to get his own bike and join the club.
Doug

[Hrdly-Dangrs]

Last Check....

Hey Doug been meaning to finish up a point on this thread. Once your chain 'slack' is set and before you ride off and irregardless of the type of adjusting set-up your paticular make bike has, or the number of threads showing on each adjusting screw, the last thing I do is sight down the chain from the top of the rear sprocket to the trans sprocket. What we're looking for is 'dead-on' alignment of the sprockets so that the chain is riding true to the sprockets themselves. Any little bit of misalignment will cause the chain to 'bind' and 'whip' and wear prematurely and rob you of Horse Power! Hey Panman, do you remember the old saying "I wouldn't belong to any Club that would have me as a Member??...They were thinking of my Brother-In-Law when they wrote it!....Ha!!..... ....Hrdly-Dangrs

[61 panman]

Hrdly,
Yeah that chain adjustment is one of those simple jobs that us adjustment freaks can spend hours on and still every half hour during a ride when I stopped at a stoplight or somethin I still will reach down and give the chain the old finger tug to see how it feels. Yet I know friends who rode on for years and never even lubed their chains, much less adjusted them. Most of them did not ride classics though. Classic pieces of junk maybe but certainly not classics.
I have been tempted to purchase that tool that locks onto the rear sprocket and has a rod to sight down the chain but I hate to buy a tool that I am not sure if it really works. I do spend much time checking to make sure the chain is centered on the rear sprocket. I am a little kooky about this as I do not want to wear out my rear sprocket as all my bikes have the dreaded "rivets" holding them to the rear drum.
Kirk made an interesting point about the self centering feature of HD swingarms. I am not sure if that is completely accurate, but it does make sense that the axle cannot be cocked on between the swingarm lugs. ( we will see if that makes it past the censors) I said cocked.
Anyway regarding your brother in law send him out on an Indian.
I hear from reliable sources that 95% of them are still on the road. The other 5% actually made it home :
Doug

[Hrdly-Dangrs]

Waste of a good motorcycle!.....Even if it is an Indian!.... ...Hrdly-Dangrs

[k.perry]

You don't need that tool with a sight-stick that locks on top the sprocket, just take your chain guard off and point a spot light down the chain line (hang a clip-spot down from the saddle seat skirt). Use two 7/16" open-ends, one in each hand as you stand behind the rear wheel. Turn the axle screw on the right while you watch down the line at the trans. sprocket move in or out of alignment, then turn the axle screw on the left and watch things move. You pick up real quick when the trans sprocket is out of line with the rear sprocket. The frames axle gussets are fixed, rigid or swing arm. Their not going to move. So, when you tighten the brake sleeve and axle nuts and anchor stud nut, it will move the position of the axle you left the alignment at, and it will show you how far you are off in relation to where the gussets want the axle to point. Gussets are King. There will almost always be a gap created on either the left or right side, between the end of the axle adjusting screw tip and the (big) axle hex head (right) or axle spacer (left). Just make sure that when you finally tighten the axle screw lock nuts, that the axle screw does not turn in (clockwise) or it will push the wheel back when you ride the machine.