For cleaning, maintenance, tuning and adjusting, it is often necessary to mount and unmount the chain from or to the kart. Many racers these days use chains without a master link, i.e. a special link used to open the chain. Instead, all the links of the chain are the same. The advantage is that there is no one weak link in the chain and that length adjustments of the chain are easily possible.

So how can such a chain be opened at all? The key is, as usual, the right tool. In this case the tool is a chain breaker, a very fitting name. The tool really allows you to open a chain quickly and efficiently, to add new links or remove a few links to modify the chain length, etc. But if not used properly, you can seriously ruin some of your chain links, which is utterly annoying if you are in a hurry because your next race starts in a few minutes, and you just quickly wanted to change the gear ratio and now you are sitting there with a screwed up chain while they are calling your class already to the grid... Been there, done that.

To avoid this, it is necessary to use the chain breaker properly. It's not difficult to do and a few simple things to consider will make the whole experience much more enjoyable for you and your chain.

Its's typically a small block of machined metal with a precicely shaped 'groove' across it's surface in which a couple of links of your chain will exactly match. From the side then there are two screws penetrating into the block of metal. By screwing the screws inward (usually with an allen wrench), their ends will poke into the groove area. One of the screws has a thin end, almost the same diameter as the rollers (the round little metal pins which connect the links) of your chain, while the other screw has a flat end. You use the screw with the thin end to press a roller out of its link, thereby breaking the connection of the chain at that point. Once it is time to connect the chain back together again, you use the flat-ended screw from the other side to press the roller back into the link. It's that easy.

Problems!

All of this works really well and allows you to break or connect a chain in just minutes. But things can also easily go wrong! When you try to push out a roller, it is possile to bend the side walls of a link with the thin end of the screw. When you try to connect the chain again, the same is possible when the roller is not properly aligned with the hole in the wall of the link. Once a side wall of the link is bent, it's unusable and you will have to replace it. That can get time consuming.

Breaking the chain

So to break the chain, use the following precaution: While screwing in the screw with the pointy end, only turn half a turn after its end made contact with the roller. Then go back a quarter turn. By letting off the pressure you will ensure that screw-end and roller have time to align. Be particularly careful at the beginning, when the screw-end needs to find the hole in the link side-wall. Then go another half turn and let off a quarter turn. Continue this until the screw-end has cleared the side-walls of the links and pokes out into the middle of the chain. You can then continue more quickly. Press the roller out all the way towards the opposite link side-wall, being more careful towards the end again. BTW, make sure you don't press out the roller too far, or it will just pop out of the chain on the other end. It's easy to loose the rollers and very difficult to get them back into the link. So just press it out far enough so that it clears the inner link's side-wall, but still sticks in the wall of the outer link.

Connecting the chain

When it is time to connect the chain again, one must be even more careful. After placing the two chain ends properly into the groove of the chain breaker, such that the roller which was pressed outwards is now pointing towards the end of the flat-ended screw, you can begin to tighten that screw. It will make contact with the roller and will begin to press it back into the chain. Again, use the half turn in, quarter turn out method to ensure that roller and holes always have the opportunity to align with each other. From the far side of the chain, insert a small pin, maybe a thin allen wrench, into the hole of the link. This will help you to align the holes of the two links which you are connecting. As you press the roller further into the chain, your allen wrench will be pressed out by the advancing roller. But that's OK, at least the holes are all aligned. When the end of the roller has reached the side-walls on the far-end, be particularly careful again. Advance the roller in small steps, always letting off pressure in between. Make sure that the outer side-wall does not bend too much! It may flex a little as the roller is being pressed into the hole, but it should straighten itself again after the roller end is through the hole. The key really is the slow advancement, with the frequent letting off of pressure.

For comments or suggestions,
please contact J. Brendel