Noisy Chain

My SV650s curvy (2000) seems to have a noisy chain (final drive). It has an EK 525 O ring which seems to be fairly new - it's well oiled but has had some frequent adjustment. Sprockets also seem recent with no hooking or obvious signs of wear. Have checked rear wheel bearings including sprocket bearing and they are smooth and quiet. No sign of backlash on front sprocket. No sign of binding brakes either. Noise is a whirring sound - even sounds noisy when I spin the rear wheel. Alignment good. Bit out of touch with chains after years of shaft drives. Bad chain maybe??

[Viney]

Wheel alignment and adjustment. How much movement difference is there between the tight and loose spots? Remember that it has to have a little slack when sat on the bike. My chin is brand new as in its done about30 miles and its noisy but in a good way not the clack clack that you get with worn stuff.

pretty average throughout the chain for adjustment - alignment triple checked - although sprockets appear very good I do wonder if previous owner failed to change either of them - rear sprocket still very shiny - can only guesstimate age of the chain etc but when adjusted within parameters the chain is well locked onto sprockets.

the chain could be old, from what ive found they do tend to get a bit more noisy as they age

could well be - have an open mind on this

frequent adjustment also leads to me thinking it old. However give it a good clean and grease and it could help it! does wonders sometimes

[embee]

Make double sure the chain is not too tight. Get someone (heavy) to sit on the bike and see how much tighter the chain gets than when it's on the side stand. If no-one is available, lay over the seat, pull up on the swingarm as hard as you can, and feel the chain slack.

Despite what the book says, I reckon the curvey needs a minimum 30mm slack at the mid-span when the bike is on the side-stand, most of this disappears when there is a rider on-board.

As a further refinement, check for offset of the sprockets. On mine I found with the wheels aligned "correctly" the sprockets were not parallel, due to the rear wheel being about 3mm offset and therefore tilted slightly to align with the front. I also didn't really like how much clearance there was between the wheel assembly and the swingarm whan the axle was loose (i.e. the swingarm gap had to be closed up a good 4mm when tightening the wheel).

I fitted a washer on one side of the wheel which effectively moved it across a couple of mm and then with the wheels aligned the sprockets were aligned too and the chain runs centrally with clearance on both sides between sideplates and sprocket.

Originally Posted by embee

Make double sure the chain is not too tight. Get someone (heavy) to sit on the bike and see how much tighter the chain gets than when it's on the side stand. If no-one is available, lay over the seat, pull up on the swingarm as hard as you can, and feel the chain slack.

Despite what the book says, I reckon the curvey needs a minimum 30mm slack at the mid-span when the bike is on the side-stand, most of this disappears when there is a rider on-board.

As a further refinement, check for offset of the sprockets. On mine I found with the wheels aligned "correctly" the sprockets were not parallel, due to the rear wheel being about 3mm offset and therefore tilted slightly to align with the front. I also didn't really like how much clearance there was between the wheel assembly and the swingarm whan the axle was loose (i.e. the swingarm gap had to be closed up a good 4mm when tightening the wheel).

I fitted a washer on one side of the wheel which effectively moved it across a couple of mm and then with the wheels aligned the sprockets were aligned too and the chain runs centrally with clearance on both sides between sideplates and sprocket.

This sprocket alignment is the only thing left to check - I have wondered about the amount of slack to take up across the swinging arm - will try to look at this over the next few days.

Many thanks for all the suggestions so far. I am getting to the stage of saying "knackered chain" and eventually changing the whole kit.

If the chain has had frequent adjustment, but the fact that the rear sprocket is still shiny makes me wonder if the previous owner has maybe replaced the sprockets due to them being hooked, and just given the chain a good clean to make it looked "new", so that he could save money with the idea of selling the bike all along??