Cleaning and Lubing the drive chain.

[ratioutput]

In the service manual kerosene is recommended for cleaning and heavy weight motor oil is suggested for lubing.
My question is what oil weight would you consider for lubing.

[JWR]

I believe it calls for 90 weight.

I use WD-40 to clean and Bel-Ray to oil mine.

[Water Warrior 2]

Kerosene is great for cleaning the chain. Pick up a big shallow aluminum pan to catch all the drippings. Dollar stores have them. As for lubing most folks go with chain wax or chain lube. I like Du Pont with teflon, works well and is a cleaner looking product after applied. Lube the side plates of the chain where the O-rings live. Both sides of the chain and a bit on the rollers themselves which will distribute the lube as you ride. If you are going to use a cleaning brush on the chain do not use anything metallic. You might damage the O-rings. A tooth brush or old soft narrow paint brush will do. And paper towels, you will make a mess first time round.

[trykemike]

A while ago I posted that I used bearing grease which I applied to the chain with an old tooth brush. I now have 18500 km on that chain and have only adjusted it 1 time by 1/2 a mark. I periodically use a small brush to apply oil
lightly to moisten the chain about 1 time per month. I don't drive on gravel roads.

[Easy Rider]

In the service manual kerosene is recommended for cleaning and heavy weight motor oil is suggested for lubing.
My question is what oil weight would you consider for lubing.

Mineral spirits......sold as paint thinner.....is similar to kero without the smell; works good for cleaning.
WD works good too.

Why would you NOT use the weight and type of oil that is recommended ??
Synthetic 50W90 gear lube is available in quarts and a quart will probably last through 2 or 3 chains.

[ratioutput]

In the service manual kerosene is recommended for cleaning and heavy weight motor oil is suggested for lubing.
My question is what oil weight would you consider for lubing.

Mineral spirits......sold as paint thinner.....is similar to kero without the smell; works good for cleaning.
WD works good too.

Why would you NOT use the weight and type of oil that is recommended ??
Synthetic 50W90 gear lube is available in quarts and a quart will probably last through 2 or 3 chains.

Hey Easy Rider, I may have overlooked it in the service/factory manual but I wasn't able to find the recommended oil weight that's why I'm asking you guys. Now you're saying 50W90 gear lube will do it? I was under the impression it was motor oil.

[adrianinflorida]

From page 2-12 of the service manual:

• After cleaning and drying the chain, oil it with a heavy-weight engine oil

The Owners manual states on page 51:

2. Allow the chain to dry, then lubricate the links with Suzuki chain lube or an equivalent.

[Easy Rider]

Hey Easy Rider, I may have overlooked it in the service/factory manual but I wasn't able to find the recommended oil weight that's why I'm asking you guys. Now you're saying 50W90 gear lube will do it? I was under the impression it was motor oil.

Chains are not that critical. 50W engine is roughly equivalent to 90W gear lube..........but the engine oil has a BUNCH of additives that aren't necessary in a rear end or on a chain. The cheapest thing would be a straight 50W engine oil or straight 90W gear lube, but I doubt you can find either of those anymore.

Look in the charts near the back of the owner's manual ....where they list fuel type/capacity, engine oil type/capacity, etc. I "thinK" I saw a reference to 90W gear lube in there but I'm not sure. Anyhow, that has been pretty much the "standard" recommendation for chain lube for the past....oooo....maybe 80 years or so. Chains don't change much over time. :tup:

[5th_bike]

I clean the chain with kerosene, usually twice, with a paint brush, and use an paint tray to catch most of the drips, and paper towels underneath the sprockets, and to wipe hanging drips before moving the chain to the next section, and to wipe the rear tire.

Kerosene takes quite a while to dry even in warm weather - I'm starting to think about mineral spirits, it will dry much faster because the heavier oil compounds that kerosene has are totally absent in mineral spirits.

Lube, is Pennzoil SAE 80W-140 GL-5 heavy-duty gear lubricant. I use a tiny oil can and the same paint brush to cover the chain in oil. There should be no drips though.

In between cleanings, whenever it looks dry, I add like 10 drips to a section before taking off, the Easy Rider method.

[ratioutput]

I have some SAE 30 motor oil; what do ya think??

[Water Warrior 2]

I have some SAE 30 motor oil; what do ya think??
Give it a shot. Might throw off quite readily at speed so wipe all excess off with a rag.

[Easy Rider]

I have some SAE 30 motor oil; what do ya think??
Give it a shot. Might throw off quite readily at speed so wipe all excess off with a rag.
:plus1:
Certainly better than nothing.

[oneyunguy]

I use heavy motor oil as recommended, and put the bike on the jackstands that I made from this site, put it in gear, and idle as I apply the oil with a thick brush. S"uper easy

[mrlmd1]

Dupont Teflon Spray Lube in an aerosol can - many on here like it and use it. No mess, no fuss, no sticky dirt on the chain. Easy, clean, works great.

[Water Warrior 2]

Dupont Teflon Spray Lube in an aerosol can - many on here like it and use it. No mess, no fuss, no sticky dirt on the chain. Easy, clean, works great.
:rawk: :rawk: :rawk: :rawk: :rawk: :rawk: :rawk: :rawk: :rawk: :rawk: :rawk: :rawk: :rawk: :rawk:

[cnorman70]

OK, this may sound totally obvious, but coming from a "nube", it may not be so...

I have some brown, probably rust, spots on the chain...the chain lube/oil should help with this, correct??

[bonehead]

Anything is better than nothing. I use a foaming chain lube, just cuz' I get it free.

[Easy Rider]

I have some brown, probably rust, spots on the chain...the chain lube/oil should help with this, correct??

Hey, Springfield! Goin' to the car races this weekend at the fair ??

If those rust spots are not numerous and are on the OUTSIDE of the chain (rather than on the rollers) then there is no problem and keeping it properly lubbed will help prevent further spread.
The sides of the chain really does nothing except hold the working parts together so the rust has to be really, REALLY bad before it is any concern.

[cnorman70]

Easy Rider

yes, I'm going to the race on Sunday...my wife and daughter are running in the Abe's Amble in the a.m. and then we'll be going to the race.

thanks for the info regarding the chain. just had it in to get the oil changed, but they didn't say anything about the chain...didn't really notice the spots til after i had been there.

[dhgeyer]

I've used chain wax since it's been around. It comes in a pressurized can, but comes out as kind of a foam. There's a straw-like plastic tube that goes in the button, like WD-40, so you can apply it fairly precisely. I prefer wax, as it lubricates at least as well as oil or grease, but is dryer, and doesn't pick up as much dust and dirt. I use wax in other forms to lubricate other parts of the bike as well, such as the throttle pipe on the handlebar, brake and clutch levers on their pivots, and such. It stays smoother longer because, being a dry lubricant, it doesn't pick up grit.

The Dupont Teflon product sounds intriguing, but I haven't seen it around here. Or should I be looking in a different kind of retail store?

[Easy Rider]

The Dupont Teflon product sounds intriguing, but I haven't seen it around here. Or should I be looking in a different kind of retail store?

Auto parts section of a "big box" store or a "real" auto parts store.

[mrlmd1]

Walmart.

[Water Warrior 2]

Try a big box home improvement center. There is the regular stuff and recently they came out with a chain specific Teflon spray with a higher concentration of something that chains really love. IIRC Webbike World did a write up on it. I have used the regular stuff and it is great. It isn't available in the GWN so I make a trip out of it and spend the day in Northern Washington.

[dhgeyer]

Well, we've got a Walmart and a VIP Auto Center right near each other. I'll try 'em both.

[Canuck]

I believe it calls for 90 weight.

I use WD-40 to clean and Bel-Ray to oil mine.





Does anyone else have any worries about this combination?? specifically Bel Ray Waterproof grease.

I have some.. and well when i saw JWR had been using it to oil i thought it wasnt a bad idea.
Is this to heavy of a weight to use... ?

Thanks

[Canuck]

I know JWR didnt say if he used Bel Ray WP Grease but... lets just assume.

It is fully compatible with O rings...so they say.

and with the Fall season in the near future... i like the idea of WATERPROOF. as i ride everyday...sometimes in rainy and wet conditions.

[Easy Rider]

I have some.. and well when i saw JWR had been using it to oil i thought it wasnt a bad idea.
Is this to heavy of a weight to use... ?


No, maybe!

Chains are a REAL primitive device. What you use to lube them doesn't really make much difference. It's more for the operator's convenience instead of more/less actual wear on the chain. So a "thin" grease should be OK......except how are you going to be sure you get everything covered without having big chunks fly off later ?? And will it be more likely to trap dirt and hold it ??

[Canuck]

Application with an old toothbrush seemed to spread it evenly over the chain.. i tried to get total coverage.

after a ride or two.. there was NO chunks that came off on the tire rim, or tire itself which was nice.

.....after these rides I am hoping with the extra heat from the sun and heat from the chains friction would have allowed the grease to penetrate deeper to the places my toothbrush did not.

Seems ok for now !

thanks Easy

[Water Warrior 2]

Try a big box home improvement center. There is the regular stuff and recently they came out with a chain specific Teflon spray with a higher concentration of something that chains really love. IIRC Webbike World did a write up on it. I have used the regular stuff and it is great. It isn't available in the GWN so I make a trip out of it and spend the day in Northern Washington.


Just looked up my list. Lowes, Home Depot and Ace Hardware sell DuPont with Teflon.

[mrlmd1]

Why you guys fuss so with all the mess of oil, grease, toothbrushes, rags, slinging stuff off as you ride, having to clean up, is beyond me. Get a can of Dupont Teflon spray, as I said before. It's easy, quick, cheap, lasts, no dirt, no muss, no fuss, no cleanup. Try it, you'll like it, and you'll never go back to that other dirty stuff.

[Water Warrior 2]

Why you guys fuss so with all the mess of oil, grease, toothbrushes, rags, slinging stuff off as you ride, having to clean up, is beyond me. Get a can of Dupont Teflon spray, as I said before. It's easy, quick, cheap, lasts, no dirt, no muss, no fuss, no cleanup. Try it, you'll like it, and you'll never go back to that other dirty stuff.

Now tell us how you really feel. LOL. ................. But I gotta agree, it takes me longer to get the can out than lube the chain.

[cspan37421]

Just tightened my chain for the first time and wanted to share a couple tips and ask a question.

First, spend more than a cursory amount of time straightening out the cotter pin. When you grab it with pliers (after doing some straightening of course) and it doesn't want to come out, you may find the pliers lose their grip and your hand and pliers go suddenly upward toward the rear fender - ouchy. Even though the pin looked straight, it apparently wasn't - where I couldn't see. I ended up working it out by alternating between tapping it from underneath with a nail setter and straightening it with the pliers (again, from underneath). In the end you hardly have to pull from on top.

+1 on the measuring forward to back, not left-right.

I had a lot of slack in my chain - almost 1.5", so about 3/4ths of an inch each way pushing up and down. Tightening the adj. nuts, a little goes a long way. I'm clearly at the tight end of the adj range - probably 0.25" - so I'm going to carefully watch it in the short run that it doesn't tighten any further.

One thing that puzzled me about loosening the axle nuts - I loosened the chain side some, then went over to the exhaust side, and found the nut already loose! (I had already taken out the cotter pin, and it wasn't loose prior to that). I'm guessing loosening the chain side simultaneously loosened the other side? That led me to wonder - since I can't fit my torque (socket) wrench between the exhaust and the axle nut with the cotter pin, do you really need to loosen the cotter pin side, if it can be accomplished from the other? Probably you do - or the alignment would be off. But it did make me wonder if that cotter pin wrestling match was even necessary.

Next step for me - valve clearance inspection - and maybe adjustment! O_o

[music man]

The back wheel is held on by basically a bolt with a nut one the end of it, so yes if you loosen the nut on one side (or the bolt head on the other) the result will be the same, the wheel will get loosened.

As for the cotter pin, if you didn't take it out, you could not have turned the other side, without spinning the axle nut and cotter pin around and around, which would mean that you were not loosening anything.

Sorry if that didn't come out clearly, sometimes i don't explain things real well.

[JWR]

Back to the BelRay chain lube.

On the 1400 mile trip, we had over 400 miles of rain.

The chain lube did a real good job of repelling the water.
After the trip I used mineral spirits(thanks to EasyRider) and cleaned the chain, then reapplied the BelRay.
http://www.bel-ray.com/consumer/product.fsp?pid=1296

Jerry

[New GZ250]

Dupont Teflon Spray Lube in an aerosol can - many on here like it and use it. No mess, no fuss, no sticky dirt on the chain. Easy, clean, works great.

Great stuff! I was using PJ dry wax lube absolutely no comparison! I bought the Dupont Teflon Wax Lube from BikeBandit! Bare minimum throw off on rear rim and I mean bear minimum. Thanks for the recommendation. Oh yea, I'm using the liquid non spray Dupont Wax Lubricant!
:2tup: :)

Here's the link: http://www.bikebandit.com/dupont-multi- ... er?b=59463 (http://www.bikebandit.com/dupont-multi-use-lubricant-with-teflon-fluoropolymer?b=59463)

[mrlmd1]

That's probably the same stuff as in the spray can I and others use, just is only the liquid. Should be just as easy to use, just drip it onto the chain as you rotate the rear wheel. You'll like how the chain stays clean with no dirt or mud or anything sticking to it and how easy it is to reapply anytime you feel like it.