Chain's Tightening

[bushwesl]

I had my chain properly adjusted, but after riding for a bit I noticed that it would tighten right up. I'd re-adjust it and then it would happen again. I got sick of adjusting it so I just rode it the rest of the day as is. I don't know what can be happening, the swingarm bolt is tight, my axle is tight, and after adjusting my chain I would get the back carrier cinch bolts as tight as I could get them. I didn't mark the carrier/swingarm to see if it was actually rotating in there, but it's something that I'm going to try. I'm running an LSR swingarm with a RAD tapered bearing carrier. Also, where there are the two rubber seals on the swingarm that go inbetween the swingarm and the carrier I just used some silicone sealant for the time being, but I wouldn't think that would have any effects like this. The only thing that I can think of is that the carrier isn't getting tight enough, or where the cinch bolts are located there isn't a surface on the bearing carrier that it's tightening on. Anyone have any ideas or have had a similar problem?

[Dave83]

You havent had your swinger powdercoated recently have you?

[8686]

Have you tried eating Wheaties before you tighten the bolts?

[bushwesl]

Well the swingarm was new, so I guess that it would have newer powder coating. What would that have to do with it? I also remember when I put it together I put a little grease on the carrier before installing it into the swingarm. Would that matter?

And the Wheaties aren't the problem :D

[Dave83]

If the powdercoating got into the area of the swinger that contacts the carrier,it can make that area slick,especially if you applied grease to that area.

[Aceman]

I'd remove the carrier and degrease it and the swinger.

Be careful tightening pinch bolts, overtightening can lead to a cracked swinger.

[wilkin250r]

I suggest you get the simple things out of the way. As you already suggested, I would mark the carrier/swingarm to verify if the carrier is actually rotating or not. First things first, no sense in chasing wild theories before you even have all the information.

[86 Quad R]

i'm having trouble understanding how the chain could be "tightening" if the carrier is rotating. you typically are using upper 180^ of cammed offset and the direction of chain rotation is in the direction to loosen the chain via the carrier. unless ofcourse you are using the lower 180^ of the adjustment :huh

[atvmxr]

yeah, what 86 said. the couple times my carrier has come loose it has lead to too much slack, not tightening...

[bushwesl]

Well I finally got a chance to investigate this a little more thoroughly... and I almost don't want to tell you guys what the problem was :ermm: :rolleyes: When I bought the swingarm it had new bearings already in it so I didn't think anything about checking them, so I just went ahead and bolted it up, tightened the swingarm bolt down and went on my way. After checking it out last night I was finally able to make the swingarm move. Since I've only dealt with 86/87 swingarms previously I didn't realize that you need a steel sleeve that spans the swingarm pivot area. I just had the bolt in there and no sleeve, which allowed my swingarm to chuck around under load, although I could barely do it with trying to move it myself. I can't believe I didn't ruin anything while it was like that, considering I probably rode a solid 2 hours on a MX track :eek: I've got a friend (x.system) that's going to hook me up with some nylon bushings to replace the bearings, etc so that way I can ride this weekend--picking them up tonight. Yea, I'm an idiot :rolleyes: :p Thanks for everyone's help!!

[kiesta00]

Shame on you!!