Turkey, Chains and sprockets

[lragan]

What worries me is mixing brands. I'm sure "most" chain is identical but i would guess some difference from manufacturer to manufacturer could cause a faster wear area or a weaker spot? just a few thousands of an inch difference from brand to brand could cause this.

Len, I believe motorcycle chain manufactured to ISO10190 should be have compatible components -- tolerances, hardness, tensile strength, etc. are specified.  I would not worry about "mixing and matching" if the components you purchase meet the standard -- they should all fit and work together.

[Len Averyt]

Well as soon as I finish gobbling up gobbler  I'll be out there doing the chain.
I'm looking forward to see how smooth a new chain rides. I got the bike with 12.5K on it and now the OEM chain has 29K on it with significant wear on the drive sprocket. Lots of chain noise when the lube wears thin.
I have kept it lubricated fairly well but the wear in the links and sprockets have me all the way at maximum adjustment.
BTW the chain is only ISO-9001 Certified doesnt show ISO10190 anywhere on the box. I'll check the manufacturer web site.

[roboto65]

I believe motorcycle chain manufactured to ISO10190 should be have compatible components -- tolerances, hardness, tensile strength, etc

Not necessarily I have had chains with different shaft diameter so one may fit but another may not DID may differ from EK and so on and so on we ran in to at Charles when we did my chain up there also some staked masterlinks have a hole in the end so the chain tool can mushroom it out.

While some have a flat end looks solid this one gets crushed also but it looks more like the stock chain did with four indentations around it not mushroomed like the it,s counterpart. I have also seen Oring chains with a clip type masterlink!!!

[lragan]

BTW the chain is only ISO-9001 Certified doesnt show ISO10190 anywhere on the box. I'll check the manufacturer web site.

ISO 9001 is about business practices -- not chain specifications, so Allen is right on, you may run into installation difficulties with parts from different manufacturers.

The staked link I put in mine was of the solid type, and showed the four indentations on the edge of the post.  It would be very difficult, now that it is installed, to distinguish it from all the regular links -- except for the marking on the side plate, I don't think you could tell...

Allen, if the link installs without difficulty, is there a problem because it comes from a different manufacturer?  Are there tolerance issues here?

[Curtis_Valk]

I presume the O-rings are Neoprene?  Knowing the composition will help in choosing a cleaner.  I have been using diesel fuel, just because it is handy and leaves an oily film.

Lawrence, I don't know the composition of most o-rings.  Diesel is my favorite solvent; it is cheap enough to use in quantity, is not harmful to most materials, has a high flash point to make it safe and like you say it leaves behind an oily film so stuff you just cleaned doesn't begin to rust before you can apply some lube or rust preventative.  Maybe I'll put it in my coffee instead of MEK!! 

Curtis

[lragan]

My step dad used to add a little diesel to a tank of gasoline occasionally -- claimed it helped keep the carburetors clean. 

Seemed dubious to me at the time, but it was just one of many little tricks he used around the ranch.  Looking back, his equipment ran reliably for decades, so he had to have been doing something right!

[roboto65]

Allen, if the link installs without difficulty, is there a problem because it comes from a different manufacturer?  Are there tolerance issues here?

No I would think not now if it sloppy loose in there yeah for sure but that goes without saying if it is too tight well it is not going to fit it is pretty much a go nogo type thing!!! Hope everyone had a great Turkey day I got home from work just in time to spend some time with the family !!!!

[Len Averyt]

Well got it all on today. I'll take it for a spin tomarrow.
I figured the easiest way to get the old chain off was to cut it in two using a die grinder. Took about 5 minutes and the chain was severed.
Cleaned up everything, lube the spline shaft and replaced the front sprocket. Rear sprocket was a piece of cake.
Connecting the new chain was a bit fun but not bad. used the provided lube to pack the masterlink. Put the masterlink togeather and snapped the clip in.
Adjusted the chain tension and locked everything down.
In the morning I'll lube the whole chain and take it for a ride.

[Len Averyt]

Follow up.
I got to ride it to work Wendsday and it was great to not hear the chain noise. Felt like there was considerably less slack jerk.
Weather fooled me though.... Was a cold ride home that night.

[Curtis_Valk]

Yep, it was cold Wednesday evening.  I was sitting in that howling wind in a friend's back yard from 8:30 to 10:30 with my pistol waiting for a possum to come out of his attic.  We spied his mate up on the roof, but he gave us the slip.

Curtis

[Charles S Otwell]

Why were you waiting for the Possum to come out? You had the gun, why didn't you go in after it?

[TLRam1]

Why were you waiting for the Possum to come out? You had the gun, why didn't you go in after it?

I like the way Charles thinks as long as I'm not the one going.    I did this with a rodent, came out in the garage and shot it.

So is he still up there?

[Curtis_Valk]

Why were you waiting for the Possum to come out? You had the gun, why didn't you go in after it?

Long story Charles, actually my part of this saga has been unfolding for days.  My buddy Troy has been contending with them for months, even having one die up there and stink up his house.  First I loaned him my live trap but nothing would get in it.  He knew it (they) were up there since him and his wife were regularly woken up in the night by the noise of possum activity.  Finally on Tuesday of this week I went over to try to find where they were getting in and out because Troy had not been able to.  We found the hole under a soffit where a lower tier of shingles goes up to meet it (the builder didn't go high enough with the decking, allowing the shingles to sag right up in the corner).  This is one of those nightmare fancy roofs with all of the facets and shapes that I would hate to have to roof.  Anyhow.........we got up in the attic and plugged the hole with some plywood, joking that we hoped we weren't locking the thing inside.

Troy treated me to supper at Crazy Catfish and then I went home.  Got a phone call a few minutes later from Troy and he said that the possum was inside and sounding very angry.  I gathered up my battery powered spot light and the most suitable firearm, my son's single action pistol in 22 rimfire stoked with low power Aguilla Colibri loads (less than 400 fps and very quiet).  My plan was to spotlight the critter and get close enough to pop a head shot at point blank range since Troy's wife and kids would be in the house.  Safety first you know.  The possum turned out to be more wily than I thought and would not appear until we had stood motionless for about thirty minutes.  We were close to the exit hole (still stopped) and I knew that's where he would go so when I heard him come close, I flipped on my spotlight.  Well, he looked into that light for a split second and then he split.  Remember the part about the nighmare, multifaceted roof?  Well, there's vaulted ceilings throughout the house too so you can imagine what the attic looked like.  Too many hiding places for the possum.

Implement "Plan B".  We decided to just open the hole and monitor from outside until he left, then go up and stop the hole again.  It worked like a charm and in about an hour I was headed home and Troy and his family were free from his critter.  Problem is, Troy was soon to discover that there was more than one.  This brings us to Wednesday evening with the wind whipping and the temperature dropping.  Our plan this time was to open the hole to let the inside possum out while staking out the back Yard near the hole to verify that he left and also to prevent the second possum from entering again if he was still in the area, a good possibility if this was a mating pair.  Well, the outside possum did come around, but Troy was the only one to see it and when it saw him it left the area.

Meanwhile, the inside possum either scented or heard the outside possum because he went berserk in there!  Problem was he had made it all the way across the utility room ceiling and was now in the attic to the semidetached garage about as far away from the original hole as possible.  I heard him growling, squealing and generally raising cain inside the soffit at one of the vent grills.  That gave me an idea: if we pulled the soffit grill then he could drop down on top of the trash wagon and then to the ground.  Unless he could climb the brick and then reach way out to grasp the opening, that should be a one way ticket out of the attic.  We removed the grill and called it quits for the night.

Thursday evening, Troy called to tell me that the possum had not found the opening and was now on the other end of the house over the master bath.  Evidently he had gotten somewhere he couldn't get out of because Troy said they could hear him climbing and then sliding back down over and over.  I got pretty concerned since I knew that possum had been up there for at least 48 hours without water and now seemed to be going into panic mode.  If he died somewhere we couldn't find him that would be about the worst possible outcome.  I told Troy to go outside by the bedroom and pull all of the grills from the soffit vents in that immediate area.  I'm sure the thing would drop to the ground as bad as it wants out.

That brings the possum adventure up to the present.  I have not heard from Troy yet, so I don't know if he still has extra residents.  Hopefully not.

Curtis

[lragan]

You are hereby rechristened from "Curtis_Valk" to "Possum_hunter".

We will expect you to use your new signature henceforth...

[TLRam1]

How was the possum getting up to the roof hole in the first place, climbing the side of the house?