Resurrecting the Rusty Ol Chain Back To Life!

[Smithers]

The chain had not turned in many years when I pushed the bike up into the truck. I didn't think it was salvageable. I have never had to replace a chain on any bike because it was too rusty. I looked around to buy a new chain but what a pain in the butt. I had to find out the chain size.. 420 I guess and also the length. Then I would have to cut it and press the new link on - or fit the master link.

OR I could just go out in the garage, soak the rusty snake and then hammer on it for an hour. Hey, why not save a buck and keep the original chain alive just for kicks. :D

Well I WISH I had some good pictures of the chain before I started on it. While it was on the bike it felt rock solid and super tight. It was obviously tight because the links weren't pivoting thus not aligned straight. I oiled it a bunch and rolled it and it just made a bunch of nasty noise and you could see that links were seized up and in a zig zag. I can actually zoom in on an old picture to give you an idea.

Notice how not straight the chain is against the straight red line.
http://www.fourwheelperformance.com/honda/honda_cl70_chain_00.jpg

[Smithers]

I started out with a chain that was so stiff that it was almost like a stick that was limp in a couple of places. There is no way that it would whip like a chain if you wiggled it back and forth. It looked like trash. I soaked it for a while and it didn't help a damn thing. Then I grabbed some pliers and tried to loosed up the chain links by moving them back and forth. It was really dirty.

Here is what I started with on the vice. The vice made a great surface to drive the chain with the punch.

http://www.fourwheelperformance.com/honda/honda_cl70_chain_01.jpg

But then I thought, "what is a chain?". It's a couple of plates held together by a couple of pins with rollers to keep the plates held apart wide enough for the matching sprocket. There is an inner and outer link from one link to the next. These are held to a desired width with pins that are pressed together. Well if the inner link is binding with the outer link then you can free them so that they don't bind. I did this with a simple punch and hammer. If you punch the inner link down away from the outer link then they will pivot freely. It's hard to explain but just look at the pictures below.

http://www.fourwheelperformance.com/honda/honda_cl70_chain_03.jpg

This is obviously at the very beginning while the chain was still pretty rusty but oiled down. Now I just tapped each inner link inbetween the outer ones and this made them separate just enough so that they wouldn't bind and also oil could get inbetween these links much better. The rollers keep the inner link from compressing too far so the sprocket will easily still fit.

[Smithers]

Now do this about 1000 times inbetween all the links and you'll be on your way to a fresh chain! I think I had to do this on both sides of the chain. I can't recall because after about 10 times punching the links you lose track of time really quick. Can you say, "anger management?". That's right. Turn on some jazz and you will get lost.

http://www.fourwheelperformance.com/honda/honda_cl70_chain_02.jpg

[Smithers]

My chain went from a stiff piece of crap and was transformed into a super slinky snake chain that was surprisingly new feeling.

http://www.fourwheelperformance.com/honda/honda_cl70_chain_04.jpg

I then turned on the ol' wire wheel and ran the chain back and forth to brush off almost all of the surface rust. Nothing like swiping your fingertips along a super fast spinning wire wheel while trying to hold onto a slippery chain. =]

http://www.fourwheelperformance.com/honda/honda_cl70_chain_05.jpg

Mission complete! The chain reborn! If you can't wait for a new chain to come in the mail take it from me, you can restore most ANY chain you have without so much work. I hate waiting and it's fun to make things work again. As long as it's made out of some metal alloy you can almost always bend it back of resurface it or weld it... anything. Ahhh they don't make em like they used to.

[Smithers]

Check out the video... I need to figure the trick way to imbed youtube vids on here... but in the meantime follow this old crusty link to my chain video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuCn6Dk5FV4

HuCn6Dk5FV4