Service

SERVICE

Missing link

I am the original owner of a ’92 Kawasaki ZX-6 with 15,000 miles on the odometer. At the 9000-mile mark, the stock endless drive chain was replaced with a Tsubaki Sigma No. 530 O-ring chain, as well as both sprockets, at the dealership of purchase. I’m not sure who makes the sprockets, but they’re aftermarket parts. Ever since these items were replaced, the chain has thrown four masterlink clips. I have mentioned this to the dealer’s service technicians, and their response has been that this kind of thing is “normal... keep a watchful eye on the masterlink...keep a spare masterlink and several clips on hand...this is a characteristic of the chain.”

I’ve had several chain-driven bikes in the past, and none of them have ever suffered any problems with thrown masterlink clips. I don’t think this is “normal.” Any ideas about why it keeps happening? Randy M. Kuklis

Alexandria, Virginia

I suggest you get tough and stop allowing the dealer’s service people to dismiss your complaints with nonsensical responses. It definitely is not a characteristic of drivechain masterlinks to fly off with great regularity.

Something else is causing the problem.

When manufacturers equip bikes with endless chains, they don’t do so because a chain with a masterlink tends to throw off its clip; they do it because a masterlink is a chain ’s weakest link. It’s the part most likely to break, even if the clip is still in place. The Tsubaki chain on your bike is a high-quality unit that should not cause the condition you describe.

Paul Dean

Instead, look for other causes, such as rear-wheel misalignment. This would aim the rear sprocket off at an angle, causing the side plates of the chain-particularly the outer side plate of the masterlink and, therefore, its retaining clip-to be subjected to constant side loads. Over a comparatively short time, those lateral loads could cause the prongs of the clip to spread far enough to pop the clip off the pins. Or, the clip might be rubbing on something along the run of the chain—a chain guide, or something inside of the countershaft cover-that is causing it to get popped off.

To ensure this doesn’t happen again, you can: 1) replace the chain with the endless type; 2) replace the chain with one that requires the pins of its clipless masterlink to be peened over; or 3) keep the clip in place by looping a small, narrow piece of soft metal (such as a piece of aluminum cut from a softdrink can) behind the clip, between the pins, and folding its ends over the outside of the clip.

Master of cylinders

Regarding Jim Densley’s locking front-brake problem (“Anti-brake locking”) in the January, ’94 Service column, the symptoms he describes indicate that the compensating port in his master cylinder is blocked. This is the tiny hole at the bottom of the reservoir that allows brake fluid to move back into the reservoir when the master-cylinder piston is fully retracted.

Even if the calipers are sticky, as you suggest, any heat buildup should force fluid back to the reservoir-unless that hole is blocked. Mr. Densley rebuilt the master cylinder, so I doubt there is any grunge obstructing the port. It’s my guess that the brake lever has been damaged-or replaced with a non-stock lever-in a way that won’t let it return to its fully extended position, preventing the mastercylinder piston from returning far enough to uncover the compensating port. If Mr. Densley checks the master cylinder, I think he’ll find something like this to be the cause. Bob Shettel

Glenwood Springs, Colorado

Sound advice. We, Jim Densley and his sticking brakes all thank you.