1982 1100E 530 Chain Conversion Thread

Nah, I'm actually quite happy go lucky. I'd probably go crazy in the retail world with my disposition. There's been some confusion as to whom I was trying to express my confusion about. I was mostly curious as to why using a known straight rod of steel received what I presumed to be derision from Tone. Hopefully those involved will check their private messages, understand and accept my apologies.

No you seem to be misunderstanding his post. He posted first about using a straight edge clamped to your sprocket to see how it is aligned. You quoted someone else and then said you used something straight to check it's alignment. Tone was just pointing out that HE had suggested that. It doesn't really matter if you use a piece of cold rolled, a straight edge or one of the little tools with the 8'' rod attached to the top to align it. They all accomplish the same thing.

What he was pointing out is that you did what he said and ignored that he had suggested it. lol I don't think he was expecting to see anything more than an "oh yeah, I see that you suggested that. It worked great" or something along similar.



EDIT: Also, you're write up was great. Thanks for all the pictures. I'm sure no one will deny that you did a fine job on that. I still think Basscliff would like to add this to his site if you didn't mind.

Egads!

Turtle seems to have misunderstood and over reacted a bit....IMHO, Tone just chimed in with a 'told you so' post. If Snark gets your (not your) goat, stay away from O.T. section at all costs.
Tony.

Nah, I'm actually quite happy go lucky. I'd probably go crazy in the retail world with my disposition. There's been some confusion as to whom I was trying to express my confusion about. I was mostly curious as to why using a known straight rod of steel received what I presumed to be derision from Tone. Hopefully those involved will check their private messages, understand and accept my apologies.

Turtle seems to have misunderstood and over reacted a bit....IMHO, Tone just chimed in with a 'told you so' post. If Snark gets your (not your) goat, stay away from O.T. section at all costs.
Tony.

[posplayr]

Tone and posplayr, if you take issue with my, or anyone elses methodology, please save the snark for email, or private messages. this thread was supposed to be a sort of tutorial, to help others who may want to follow. .

Testy aren't we

Clearly this condition was aggravated by your admitted lack of understanding of the discussion. Calling the last post SNARK is a bit uncalled for in my estimation but if that is the way you like it with your loose and liberal definition of SNARK, I will insure that I avoid your SNARK FREE ZONE.

Tone,
Is referring to clamping a straight edge to a rear sprocket and projecting forward v.s. putting a straight edge against the tire (or more accurately the rim and measuring the parallelism between chain and straight edge.

There was a prior discussion where he and I disagreed on the validity/improvement in accuracy of my measurement.

Although best done with the rim, a low profile tire is almost as good. Accuracy diminishes with taller long sidewall tires. I have made the point that the chain ring (which is mounted to carrier and ridding on a narrow spacer/bearing) is not always but should be parallel with the plane of the wheel. Any rear sprocket run out will propagate those errors through the lever arm of the chain length (which is distance between counter and rear sprockets).

On the other hand, rim run out (usually spec'd to 1mm) of the wheel doesn't amplify the error as nearly as much because of the diameter of the rim as compared to the chain distance.

Other problems I have run into with measuring chain alignment using a short based laser sites that can't be mounted solidly to the rear sprocket when the chain is installed. Even the slightest rocking caused enough variation to not provide a good measurement.

He can correct me I'm sure, but I think that is where his sensitivity is coming from.

Still rather confused, I checked the alignment in the EXACT way he described, only with a straight round rod, rather than a flat straight edge. Hell, I thought the rod would be better, since it's much more resistant to flex than a piece of flat metal.

[posplayr]

No snark zone

well i'm sure thats what i said to do

Is there any particular reason a piece of true and straight cold rolled steel can't substitute for a flat straight edge? I'm positive that it's function in this particular application is quite the same as a flat straight-edge.

Precisely! Clamped a small piece of cold-rolled I had laying around to the rear sprocket,

well i'm sure thats what i said to do

Well I had to do a double take on this one. I'm pretty sure Katman is right and the spacer goes out in front. The thickness of the OM gear is mainly from a rubber mounted damper, but in the counter sprocket is stood off on the actual gear rather than the rubber mounted damper (a cylindrical spacer). So from a spacing perspective if you put the new 530 gear against the same cylindrical spacer the offset is the same. The problem then is that the crank shaft doesn't have enough threads for such a skinny gear and so the spacer is used simply to allow the nut to screw on as the offset is already set by the inner cylindrical spacer.

Simple check; get a straight edge and put it against your rear tire under the swing arm. It should be parallel to your chain.

Of course your rear wheel should be aligned with the front for this to work right.

Precisely! Clamped a small piece of cold-rolled I had laying around to the rear sprocket, lines up perfectly with the front. I was sweating for a bit there, good job keeping me on my toes. Ride is totally transformed. The old chain had so much stiction/friction in it, it was unbelievable. And the noise that thing used to make! I could hear it at all speeds, over the engine noises. To give you an idea on the amount of stiction/friction involved, when I would come to a slow stop, I thought the anti-dive was busted, as the front end of the bike would bounce while slowing. Seems to be completely rectified. I think the chain was catching at the back sprocket and cause the bike to slow faster than normal until the bad links cleared the sprocket, allowing it to slow at a normal rate, creating a bobbing effect. New one is quite quiet. I do hear a higher pitched noise at higher speeds, probably 55+. I looked very closely at the sprockets and the inside of the side plates, and it looks like it's running right down the middle of the chain. Is this higher pitched noise something normal? I took all the foam out of the inside of the sprocket cover as well, perhaps it's just reverbrations bouncing around inside that thing, or just the lack of sound dampening material. Either way, the chain is about two million times quieter than the old one. If all my maintainance task prove as fruitful as this one, I'm going to be one very happy (happier) camper.

[posplayr]

No snark zone

To be on the safe side, I'll go ahead and try this string thing. How do I go about checking straightness?

Much more easy to forget the string & clamp a straight edge to the rear sprocket facing forward & then you can see straight away if theres any mis-alignment, you may have to remove the chain for this

tone

Now check your SPROCKET alignments with a string as EVERY one I have done called for the spacer to go BEHIND the countershaft sprocket. Ray.

Katman assured me that's the right way, earlier in this thread. After looking at the parts, and seeing how they fit together, I'm inclined to believe hime. The sleeve that's on output shaft sits against the sprocket itself on my bike, not against the stock damper. The inner diameter of the hole on the engine side of the damper is larger to accomodate the sleeve, allowing it to rest against the sprocket. The spacer is used to replicate the boss on the outbound side of the sprocket, which allows the sprocket nut to tighten properly. Otherwise, you run out of threads before everything's tight. I tried it both ways, for ****s and giggles, and it would only tighten up to the required torque with the sprocket on the outside.

I did get a quick test ride inbetween fits of precipitation. Roads were damp, so I kept out of the throttle. Chain was MUCH quieter than the old one. No longer have a strange pulsing feeling to the engine while slowing down. All I can hear from the chain, even with the lack of foam in the sprocket cover, is a sort of whispering sound, sort of like a deck of playing cards being shuffled, but only if the cards were made out of thin shim stock.

To be on the safe side, I'll go ahead and try this string thing. How do I go about checking straightness? Where do I run the string from, and where should it go? Looking down the chain, it looks fairly true. Rear sprocket's teeth are running straight in the middle of the side plates through the entire length of the chain, with the bike on the center stand, and rotating the tire briskly (5 mph or so) by hand in the direction of travel.

[posplayr]

.................no snark zone

[rapidray]

Now check your SPROCKET alignments with a string as EVERY one I have done called for the spacer to go BEHIND the countershaft sprocket. Ray.

Now that the front sprocket is on, time to get the rear wheel assembly together. You did remember where all those axle spacers went, right? If not, just check the parts fiche, it's actually pretty easy to figure out. After that's all back in place, you'll need to toss the chain on. I slipped the master link in to hold the chain together while I was tightening the front sprocket. Here's how I positioned my piece of 1x2 in order to keep the rear wheel from turning.



That's where it needs to be to tighten.



Here's how I positioned it to loosen the nut.

Before I cranked down on that sprocket nut, I put a little Loctite on the threads for extra insurance. Cover can go back on at this point. Bolted up the brake caliper and affixed the torque arm. I tightened the axle a bit to take up any slack in the spacer stack. Then I backed the axle adjusters all the way out, and pushed the wheel as far forward as possible. Clipped the master link together, dabbed a bit of silicone on it to insure that it stays where I want it to. After that, it's as simple as a chain cleaning, lube, and adjustment. Tighten the axle nut to the appropriate torque, replace the cotter pins, and it appears I'm ready to go.

Had a couple of hours to kill while I waited for a buddy to crawl out of bed so I could borrow his awesome Snap-On digital torque wrench. During this time, I removed the foam from the inside of the sprocket cover. I don't mind a little extra noise, and that stuff was gross. That stuff is a PITA to remove, but once I got the hang of it, it wasn't so bad. Soaked it overnight in mineral spirits to soften any glue, which helped. It seems to be spongy foam with a rubber like base that's in contact with the actual metal. If you can get a corner of the rubber like base up, you can usually peel out entire sections at a time, with a little elbow grease. Didn't get any before pictures of the cover (hands were covered in grime), so I'm not going to bother posting any after pics. Pretty sure you guys know what the inside of a sprocket cover looks like.

The instant I got the chain slack taken up properly, it started to sprinkle a bit, so first impressions will have to wait, hopefully little while.