chain slack

[Lord Popgun]

should we add in adjusting on the side stand versus adjusting on the center stand?

The service manual says center stand...

[jimgl3_imp]

btw... I have come up with a new chain maintenance product that works in one step. no longer do I have to clean and then lube... it's called break free clp! don't know why I never thought of it before. introduced to it in 1982 in the Marine Corps. so far it's working wonders!

[Whoops]

I thought I knew how to adjust a chain until I read this thread. Now I’m just full of anxiety about whether I am measuring the right way. CB1100 for sale.

[Lord Popgun]

Whoops, I’m thinking you haven’t seen the oil threads yet...

[BestStandard_imp]

https://www.motorcyclistonline.com/how-t...ideo-tips/

My summer job during high school and college was at a Honda and Harley (AMF) shop. This video shows how I was taught to do it back in the 1970's... and I've been pulling down before pushing up ever since without any issues. Pulling and pushing takes the slack out of the upper run of chain, since total slack is normally split between the upper and lower runs (when in neutral) due to the weight of each run.

[Cormanus]

This question has turned out to be surprisingly interesting. Like Sergeant Schultz and Jon Snow, "I know nothing"; however, it seems to me that this is a technical question likely to have one correct answer.

Best Standard is on to something.

https://www.motorcyclistonline.com/how-t...ideo-tips/

My summer job during high school and college was at a Honda and Harley (AMF) shop. This video shows how I was taught to do it back in the 1970's... and I've been pulling down before pushing up ever since without any issues. Pulling and pushing takes the slack out of the upper run of chain, since total slack is normally split between the upper and lower runs (when in neutral) due to the weight of each run.

That's logical, but I can't see that pulling the chain down is necessary to remove the slack from the top run of the chain; that will surely also happen as you push the thing up. All pulling the chain down will do is ensure you get a measurement of the total slack in the chain as the sag in the top will ever-so-slightly reduce the actual slack in the lower run.

Having looked at the pictures here, on the bike and in the service manual, I don't think any comfort can be found in an analysis of the pictures. All those arrows are telling you is that there needs to be slack in the chain of 25 - 35mm. Sort of like marking the ends of a line in an engineer's drawing of a building. They don't tell you HOW to measure it. Neither does the Owners Manual, "Check the drive chain slack", nor the Service Manual, "Check the slack in the drive chain ..."

I can't see any point in asking a mechanic at a Honda shop as they're most likely to do it however they were taught and that won't necessarily have been by the Honda guru.

I can think of one last question: Does anyone have the Honda Motorcycle Common Service Manual? I know our leader, Guth, has one as he referred to it in a post the other day. Lord Popgun, do you? Anyone? If so, could you please, please consult it and see whether it says anything at all about HOW to measure the slack in a chain?

Curious CB1100Forum members really, really, want to know.

[BestStandard_imp]

If you don't pull down first you are starting the measurement with some slack (or droop) in the top run... so the total slack isn't taken up for the lower measurement. If you remove the chain guard to see the upper run and put it in neutral, you will see that the total droop is split between the upper and lower runs. The chain will push up to the same height for either method, so you aren't measuring the total slack unless you pull down first.

[mvk24_imp]

I'm about to just install a drive shaft after all of this lmao

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[dave]

We can solve this question once and for all if someone is willing to perform an experiment: Put your bike on the centerstand, unbolt or remove the rear shocks, raise the rear wheel up to where the centerline between the drive sprocket and the rear axle are parallel to the ground (this is the position where the chain will become the tightest), and adjust the chain "tension" (not slack) in this orientation - not too tight, not too loose. Then, reattach the shocks and measure the slack. I did this with my Honda XR650L and as as result I run a little more slack than what Honda recommends.

[mvk24_imp]

We can solve this question once and for all if someone is willing to perform an experiment: Put your bike on the centerstand, unbolt or remove the rear shocks, raise the rear wheel up to where the centerline between the drive sprocket and the rear axle are parallel to the ground (this is the position where the chain will become the tightest), and adjust the chain "tension" (not slack) in this orientation - not too tight, not too loose. Then, reattach the shocks and measure the slack. I did this with my Honda XR650L and as as result I run a little more slack than what Honda recommends.

I do not have the center stand on my CB or else I'd volunteer this weekend.

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