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Chain Adjusters


I lost one of my screen bolts and all the others were loose are only 800 miles. Will be checking all my bolts now!!
 
hmmmm...... might consider to drill a hole in the back of the bolt and put a pin in to prevent the nuts and adjuster from falling off.
or replace the lock nut with a nylon lock nut.
 
Hmmm nyloc lock nut - yes, think this may be the way to go.

Missing chain adjuster shouldn't be a problem of course as long as the spindle is tight - until I want to adjust the chain of course!!!
 
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This is the first bike I've had for a long time that uses this type of adjuster - most bikes now seem to have push-bolts. But I guess that only works well with a cast alloy swing arm. And that arrangement isn't problem-free either - you need to take the adjuster bolts right out regularly and copper grease them, otherwise the threads inside the swing arm corrode and they'll never come out again.

Rather than using a Nyloc locknut, which will be a real pain if you ever need to take it all the way off, I'd just slip a short length of rubber tube (or even a rubber band) over the end of the thread to stop the nuts coming right off.

Mental note to find something suitable in the workshop tomorrow!
 
threadlock is good for stuff that you are going to bolt in and not remove again, or in a very long time.

These adjusters are something you will probably adjust once or twice a season depending on how much you ride. I'd hate to be cleaning threads and re-applying that every time.

I was thinking that a Nord-lock washer might work too, those things are awesome.

I guess there are numerous possibilities.
-Nylock nut
-Nord-Lock washer
-Regular lock washer
-Palnut might work too
-When I worked in the airline industry we had lock nuts with oval holes
-Drill a hole and use a cotter pin
-Drill a hole and use locking wire
-A circlip of the right size night work too.

Or just grab a spanner every now an then and check the nuts.
 
Only issue with a Nyloc nut is that if/when you take it off it really needs a new one every time or it defeats the object.

Spilt pin seem like the perfect solution.

Noggie you were in the industry as well? Thats 3 members and counting.
 
Eddieh93 said:
Only issue with a Nyloc nut is that if/when you take it off it really needs a new one every time or it defeats the object.

Spilt pin seem like the perfect solution.

Noggie you were in the industry as well? Thats 3 members and counting.
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Yes. started in the Airforce back in -97 on F-16's, made the swap to a civilian airliner in 2000 on 737's. got out of it in 2006 and changed to the oil industry.
I'm a skilled Avionics engineer by trade, but the past 9 years it's been automation and software control of drilling equipment on rigs.
Still heavily involved in both electrical and mechanical installations on rigs so I consider myself quite knowledgeable on technical stuff.
 
So we got 2 AVX engineers then that what I trained in, doing continuing airworthiness management now, more money less hours haha
 
Eddieh93 said:
So we got 2 AVX engineers then that what I trained in, doing continuing airworthiness management now, more money less hours haha
Click to expand...

I changed to the oil industry, 28/28 rotation working world wide, but mostly Asia.
Pay is tripple of what I had as an Avionics engineer.
 
Eddieh93 said:
Really, how did you get into that?
Click to expand...

My employer, was bought by another airline, and 3 years later the shut down our maintenance facility.
At the time I was a bit fed up, and I did not want to start working for one on the helicopter companies like my colleagues. I had done the change from one aircraft to another once before, and did not want to go through it again.

So I applied for a job at an oil service company as a service engineer, and got the job.
completely new business, electrical, but more automation than electronics.
My job is 28/28 rotation, 12 hour shifts while at work, and time off while at home, I essentially work half the year.
My job has taken me to the US, Angola, South-Africa, Tansania, the Siberian tundra, Singapore, South-Korea, Japan, China, UAE, Quatar, North-sea, and on sails from China to UAE and South-Africa to Tansania.

My job now is commissioning of control systems on drilling rigs, and I do service jobs and support jobs too.
The compensation for working long days and away from home is great, and I have half the year off. cant really complain.
When I started I said I was going to do this for 5 years, that was almost 10 years ago, and I don't plan to stop any time soon.
 
Noggie said:
threadlock is good for stuff that you are going to bolt in and not remove again, or in a very long time.

These adjusters are something you will probably adjust once or twice a season depending on how much you ride. I'd hate to be cleaning threads and re-applying that every time.

I was thinking that a Nord-lock washer might work too, those things are awesome.

I guess there are numerous possibilities.
-Nylock nut
-Nord-Lock washer
-Regular lock washer
-Palnut might work too
-When I worked in the airline industry we had lock nuts with oval holes
-Drill a hole and use a cotter pin
-Drill a hole and use locking wire
-A circlip of the right size night work too.

Or just grab a spanner every now an then and check the nuts.
Click to expand...
Why bother to remove threadlock once applied? It may not lock as tightly second time around, but unless there are exceptional circumstances it wont vibrate loose ever even if the glue is broken by adjusting it. You would only have to put more on when the adjuster nut is wound further in, and even then if you didn't it could only vibrate out as far as previous setting. I generally only ever apply it once, nothing ever dropped off any of my race bikes this way (not strictly true, an R clip once popped out allowing pad pin to slide free, but cant threadlock that anyway), I only applied it more than once to extremely critical parts (safety wise). Must have had my rearsets off 50 times while only applying it 3 or 4 times during this period, over several years.
Anybody here experienced with drilling threaded rod? I fabricate various things from bespoke brackets to trailers, & my job involves structural repairs of sorts, either way I can tell you than drilling a threaded rod is a very bad idea. You will only have 1 point at which a stop can be applied, it is very difficult to do accurately even with a pillar drill & vice & the size of the rod concerned would necessitate a 1-1.5mm drill bit to maintain torsional strength in the adjuster rod. Drilling steel with a 1 or 1.5mm drill bit onto a convex threaded surface is a nightmare (even assuming it is punched correctly first), you'd be lucky to only need 6 drill bits they shear ridiculously easily.You would also find it rusted immediately once wet, as the BZP plating is obviously disrupted exposing plain mild steel, through which another ferrous metal would be placed creating galvanic corrosion. I can hardly believe this discussion is happening when threadlock has been used for decades for exactly this sort of application! Not trying to upset anybody here, but this is the first thread on this forum I've seen where I cant believe whats being suggested when a perfectly simple solution is well known about and used! Afterthought - should make clear i'm referring to the medium strength most commonly used form of threadlock, not the stuff meant for permanent use.
 
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nobull said:
Why bother to remove threadlock once applied? It may not lock as tightly second time around, but unless there are exceptional circumstances it wont vibrate loose ever even if the glue is broken by adjusting it. You would only have to put more on when the adjuster nut is wound further in, and even then if you didn't it could only vibrate out as far as previous setting. I generally only ever apply it once, nothing ever dropped off any of my race bikes this way (not strictly true, an R clip once popped out allowing pad pin to slide free, but cant threadlock that anyway), I only applied it more than once to extremely critical parts (safety wise). Must have had my rearsets off 50 times while only applying it 3 or 4 times during this period, over several years.
Anybody here experienced with drilling threaded rod? I fabricate various things from bespoke brackets to trailers, & my job involves structural repairs of sorts, either way I can tell you than drilling a threaded rod is a very bad idea. You will only have 1 point at which a stop can be applied, it is very difficult to do accurately even with a pillar drill & vice & the size of the rod concerned would necessitate a 1-1.5mm drill bit to maintain torsional strength in the adjuster rod. Drilling steel with a 1 or 1.5mm drill bit onto a convex threaded surface is a nightmare (even assuming it is punched correctly first), you'd be lucky to only need 6 drill bits they shear ridiculously easily.You would also find it rusted immediately once wet, as the BZP plating is obviously disrupted exposing plain mild steel, through which another ferrous metal would be placed creating galvanic corrosion. I can hardly believe this discussion is happening when threadlock has been used for decades for exactly this sort of application! Not trying to upset anybody here, but this is the first thread on this forum I've seen where I cant believe whats being suggested when a perfectly simple solution is well known about and used! Afterthought - should make clear i'm referring to the medium strength most commonly used form of threadlock, not the stuff meant for permanent use.
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Hey, no hard feelings here :)

My experience with threadlock, loctite that we used on aircafts, is that once you unscrew the nut/bolt the the threadlock will crumble into a flowery substance and will be no good for a re-use.
You are then left with a thread full of small "chunks" of something that is useless,so you have to clean it off, and re-apply new threadlock every time.

Now I understand that there may be other brands out there that may not behave like this, and it sounds like you may have found one that don't.

I guess whatever is easiest is based on what tools you have available, and your personal experience with different solutions.

Since it is not practical to do a permanent lock in one position, after all its an adjuster, my thought is not to prevent them from coming loose, but to prevent the nuts from falling off like in the first post.
I would place some kind of arrestor at the end of the rod. i.e a pin, circlip or maybe even an o-ring or a tight rubber cap on the end. that way you could do any adjustments without having to do anything, and you would not have to worry about it falling off if it came lose.

Different minds, different solutions I guess.
That's why these forums are good, you can share ideas to find the best solution.
 
Yes good point they do vary a lot, I've used a few, whatever the oem Jap bikes have on them from the factory is usually the best for re-use, least "crumbly" for want of a better word. Most types I've used haven't been too bad in this regard though, and enough remains on the threads to prevent vibrating loose in my experience. Sorry if I've ranted a bit!
 
Having failed to find a suitably-sized piece of rubber tube to put on the end of the thread (see my earlier post), I've ended up with a stainless Nyloc nut (which I did have in the "workshop") on the end of each - shouldn't budge, and will hopefully prevent the whole lot going AWOL. Loctiting an ordinary nut on the end would probably have done just as well.
 
Wouldn't a second identical nut tightened up behind the first one stop them from shaking loose anyway?

That's what was on my MT03, and if any bike was going to shake things loose, it would be one of those.
 
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