Txt 300 2013 chain tension

[Teddydanson]

Hi all, just had a couple of hours on the old girl. Runs sweet as, but I noticed the chain was very slack after an hours ride, brought her back, undid the hub bolt, and it’s got to like cog adjusters on either side, I’ve turned them both the same and it’s tightened with a little slack, but not sure if the correct tension. I can get my thumb on the top of chain under inbetween the top guide, and thumb under the chain on the swing arm. I’ve tried to look but nothing video wise I can see to check. Thanks for any help.. kris

[lemur]

If the chain tensioner is doing something when the bike is at rest with no rider aboard you are good to go, if the rubber block is touching the swingarm at rest that's not good.

... so far this year alone I spotted 3 bikes with the axle set crooked and I noticed it because the chain tensioner was doing nothing when they parked their bikes.  Make sure the axle is good and tight and that your wheel bearings are perfect, wheel bearings wear out fast.

 

Edited Wednesday at 05:31 PM by lemur

[zippy]

What I typically aim for on chain tension on my 2015 GasGas:

Bike on stand, wheel off ground. Able to place 1 finger between top of chain tensioner block and swingarm.

From the back, look at tire and chain, give the tire a spin and make sure the chain runs straight and the rear sprocket is not crooked.

[Teddydanson]

Thanks for your help guys. Just got home, put it on my stand, back wheel free hanging, finger gap ontop of tension block to swing arm

back on the ground not touching swing srm

so free gap, also spins free true and not offset.. thankyou 👍🏻

[lemur]

If you grab the tire by the front and rear and give it a sturdy wiggle rotating action about the vertical axis and can observe any change in the chain slack, that is a clear indication the wheel bearings need replacement or the swingarm bearing needs attention.  Bad bearings also contribute to reduced braking.  I end up replacing wheel bearings more then chains and that is buying the higher quality bearings ymmv.

[RonH]

21 hours ago, lemur said:

I end up replacing wheel bearings more then chains and that is buying the higher quality bearings ymmv.

Lemur, what brand of bearings do you use?

[lemur]

2 hours ago, RonH said:

Lemur, what brand of bearings do you use?

SKF from a local being supply 6 or 8 at a time.  You can buy different specs, expensive bearings have more balls and tighter specs.

... made up a puller to change them super easy, the steel sleeve to extract the bearing spacer is cut from a used CO2 canister.

 

Edited Friday at 09:16 PM by lemur

[RonH]

17 minutes ago, lemur said:

SKF from a local being supply 6 or 8 at a time.  You can buy different specs, expensive bearings have more balls and tighter specs.

... made up a puller to change them super easy, the steel sleeve to extract the bearing spacer is cut from a used CO2 canister.

 

Awesome! Thanks for the puller photo also! I’ve got everything to build one.

Edited Friday at 09:29 PM by RonH

[lemur]

You are going to find bearings have a precision rating, low numbers are low quality, higher number ABEC rating cost more.  

Same tool is good for pressing in the new bearing, use an old bearing to push the new one in, works slick.