Recent content by flivver

So I had just enough time on Tuesday night to adjust the chain one more time, but not enough time to disassemble. I used your collective advice, and loosened the axle nut just enough to allow me to move the axle, but not as much as I'd been loosening it. I managed to get the slack right at the...

Haven't looked at the damper, no. I've never taken the rear wheel off... I guess I'm going to have to. I haven't been explicitly looking for the tightest point, no... The chain is practically brand new, so I assumed that it would be pretty uniformly tensioned. I guess not. :-/ I'll...

Back to this... While my chain has been relatively quiet since this adjustment, I've been noticing more things that made me think the chain was actually a bit too loose. It's hard to describe what I noticed, but I imagine y'all know what I'm talking about. Anyway, I checked it over the...

I can... I thought (in your first reply to my washer conundrum) that I couldn't use a non-Yamaha washer, and I was just confirming that to be the case. Then, I discovered that you were really saying that there was no reason that I couldn't. So indeed, I can use a non-Yamaha flat washer -- and...

Ah, I think you meant "there's no reason" in your reply, rather than "there's reason". I get it now. Thanks. :-)

I've got an owners manual (in hard-copy), and also the FSM (in PDF). I can't use a regular washer, though (even if stainless)? Sorry to be dense...

Related to this, I went looking at a parts fiche to try to understand how the adjusters work on the 2005 swing arm. I discovered that I'm supposed to have a washer on each adjuster, ahead of the two nuts. I don't. To get them requires about $0.60 per washer, and then $8 shipping. :-( Anybody...

Nice. :-) But, how do you keep the axle from spinning without something on the right-side "nut"? I've tried putting a socket on a breaker bar, and wedging it against the ground (on the right-hand side). Is that how you're doing it, as well, or is there a better trick?

I ordered one of these lasers and it arrived yesterday. I checked my chain, and it was indeed a little bit off. I seem to have this same "slips slightly on the right hand side when I torque it up again" problem, even without removing the axle, as I'd get things lined up dead on according to the...

...and now I have some Pro Honda with white graphite on order. My wife thanks you for helping me to spend more money. :-)

Incidentally, I like the technique of using a screwdriver in one of the teeth of the sprocket to nudge the wheel into place while adjusting. That seems to primarily move the left side of the wheel, though. Is there a similar trick to get the right side to move?

Thanks guys! I tried the letting go of the handlebars trick today, and found that I did drift a little bit to the left. Upon inspecting the alignment marks again, I see that the right side of the axle is slightly more to the rear of the bike, by a tiny amount. I think that would account for...

I had my chain replaced recently, by a mechanic. As I drove it afterward, it made a whining sound that got worse with speed. I wound up driving about 50 miles on it, this way, before I decided it wasn't just the new chain that was noisy, but rather, that the chain tension was too high. I...

TownsendsFJR1300 you were right on. My mechanic keyed in on chain tension and lubrication. I'd been using the Teflon wax product that people seem to like (3M brand, maybe), but it didn't seem to be doing the trick. He lubed it with a wet lube, wiggled it a bunch to loosen the links, and also...

I didn't have much time to look at it tonight, but I did have a few minutes, so I tried to reproduce the noise. If I just sit on the bike, and bounce up-and-down on the seat, it doesn't happen. If I roll the bike forward or backward without sitting on it, it doesn't happen. It only seems to...