2006 SV650 - What immediate work needs doing?

[Bibio]

i'm going to chime in here.

most vids you see on youtube dont actually show you how to do this properly so i'm going to give a step by step.

1. the marker plates on the SV have a habit of bending when loosening the axle nut so always use a spanner on the opposite side as well as the nut. when loosening the nut you push/pull counter to the direction for loosening/tightening the axle nut e.g. if you are pulling on the nut spanner you push down on the opposite axle end spanner.

2. you dont need to 'fully loosen' the axle nut you just need to turn it about 2-3 turns so there is still tension but not enough to let the wheel spacer gouge the swingarm.

3. once the axle nut is loose then you need to use the adjusters at the end of the swingarm to tighten/loosen the tension on the chain. you wind the adjusters clockwise for tighten and anticlockwise for loosen. loosening the chain tension requires you to draw the rear wheel forward again which you can do by placing the bike in gear and pushing it forward.

4. when adjusting you must make sure that both marker plates are in the same position on each side and correspond to the marks on the swingarm and marker plates.

5. one of the biggest confusions that people have is the correct chain tension. there are a few ways that you can do this but a small ruler/rule (whatever you want to call it) is the way to do it till you get used to things. place the start of the markings on the rule half way along and under the swingarm at the front of the chain and hold it there, next pull on the chain downwards fairly hard with fingers of the other hand just at the side of the rule and take a reading on the rule using the chain rivet as a marker point then push on the chain upwards fairly hard then take another reading again using the rivet as a marker point. the reading between the pull point and push point is the chain tension which should be between 25-30mm. the other way is to bend your thumb 90deg and use your thumb distance from the bottom of your thumb knuckle to the tip of your thumb instead of a rule. when you have done this a few times then you will eventually get a feel for it and will no longer require any measuring means.

6. tighten the axle nut and again as before you use a spanner on both ends of the axle. you can use a torque wrench but there really is no need to a the average length of a 24mm combination spanner with the average person tightening it till the spanner can no longer move gives enough leverage to put the nut torque in the ballpark torque.

tips:
if adjusting on a padock stand then place a screwdriver tip or small socket extension bar between the chan and sprocket then turn the wheel so it gets trapped between the chain and sprocket and keep pushing so you can feel a good resistance on the wheel (this makes sure that any slack on the adjusters is taken up) then while holding the wheel tighten the axle nut, you only need to tighten the axle nut enough so the wheel cant move on the adjusters. remove the screwdriver/extension and the fully torque up the nut remembering to put a spanner on the other end of the axle like at the beginning.

after tightening the axle nut you 'nip up' the adjuster nuts/bolts, dont go mad as its just to stop them from working loose.

double check that the marks on the swingarm and plates are still in the correct position.

when i'm feeling better i might just do a vid.

Thanks R1ffR4ff, Craig380 and Bibio! Just what I needed .


Bad news is I measured my chain slack and it was 25mm...so looks like I won't be having adjustment fun any time soon.


Bibio - I might have to remind you of your 'might do a video' comment when my chain finally needs adjusting. Hope you get better soon.


And again, thanks to everyone who has helped so far on this forum...it's great!

[DryRob]

I was given the following advice when I was younger

"righty tighty, lefty loosey"
"Tight's tight, too tight's f***ed"