Adjusting a Chain

Dub13

In between services my chain tends to loosen up a good bit,I am looking for help on how to tighten it up.I badly need to improve my basic bike maintenance skills but thats for another day.Any help appreciated.

PS:its a Suzuki Marauder 125.

tk123

In a nutshell :

-Loosen the axle bolts - just a few turns will do
-Tighten the adjusters on either side of the swingarm by equal amounts until you have about 5cm of slack(i have a marauder 250 and thats what the book says) - use use the guides on either side of the swingarm to get it exactly the same
-Tighten the axle bolts

EDIT - Oh and don't buy the Haines manual for the Maurader because it's a pile of crap and it's in black and white the generic Haynes one - Motorcycle Maint. Techbook is much better and has nice colour pictures.

Wishbone Ash

Dub13 wrote:

I badly need to improve my basic bike maintenance skills

Skerries Community College run basic motorcycle maintenance courses if you are interested.
http://www.fingaladulteducation.ie/Locations_Skerries.htm

Hotblack Desiato

All Haynes manuals are in black and white (kids these days :rolleyes: )

It would cost them (and you) a fortune to produce a full-colour manual specific to every bike on the market... just be glad that you don't own a bike where no manual is available except in Japanese!

50mm is an awful lot of slack except on a trail bike. Any bike I've owned has recommended 20-30mm or 25-35mm and that's pressing as hard as you can up AND down, not just waggling it.

As ever the best thing to do is look up the handbook (if you don't have one, look on ebay, see if there's an owner's club website etc. etc.) to get the correct figure, not guesswork.

bushy...

The amount of slack needed in a chain depends on sprocket sizes and the angle the swingarm is at when theres no load on it . The chain will be at its tightest when the swingarm is in line with the swingarm pivot and the centre of the front sprocket ....
So best thing to do ( not too easy though) when you're finished adjusting your chain is to compress the rear suspension and make sure it isn't dead tight ( you are NOT looking for a few inches of play with swingarm in this position,just a little bit)

tk123

ninja900 wrote:

All Haynes manuals are in black and white (kids these days :rolleyes: )

.

Hotblack Desiato

bushy... wrote:

So best thing to do ( not too easy though) when you're finished adjusting your chain is to compress the rear suspension and make sure it isn't dead tight ( you are NOT looking for a few inches of play with swingarm in this position,just a little bit)

Exactly. There still has to be a little slack with the bike fully loaded and off the stand, to allow for bumps.
If the chain gets fully taut over a bump it will be damaged (develop tight spots) and could even snap! Doesn't do the wheel bearings and gearbox bearings any good either.