I have been needing to adjust my chain for a long time now. I was reading in the service manual about making sure "both adjusting plates are aligned with the swingarm index mark." Is that hard to do, I may be asking the dumbest question ever but i don't have my bike in front of me now and not sure what they're talking about. Also is there anything else I need to keep in mind while adjust the chain? I need to stop by sears today and get a torque wrench...

 

The swing arm has marks on both sides where the axle bolt slides through. Your supposed to line up both sides to the same mark. Personally I use a tape measure, and measure from the back of the axle to the rear of the swing arm.

 

Ya, I actually used my digitalcalipers to measure! got within .001 of a mm! lol!

 

Yep, it's easy... The adjuster marks on my 05 swingarm are off (side to side) by .005mm - .009mm as measured with a CMM. Be careful measuring to the back of th swingarm to the axle nut, from the piviot point to the back of the swingarm mine different by .016mm side to side... If you want to measure, measure from the swingarm piviot point to the axle. But the adjuster marks are pretty damn close and more than safe to use.

 

Doesn't it matter what year bike you have, because my '04 is differnet than the newer models. My bike is VERY easy to tighten the chain.

 

thanks guys, your right, that was incredibly easy. i'm pretty sure i have both sides aligned very closely, but out of curiosity what is the result of improper alignment? also the chain on my bike had some serious slack going. I think I might have got it just a touch tighter than recomended, what problems could that cause? I must say though the ride feels a lot better now.

 

Improper alignment of the drive chain can lead to heavy wear of the sprockets and chain. Also place more forceon thegearbox, and its bearing, than it’s designed for. If really badly aligned it can also lead to the chain coming loose from the sprockets.