Topic: Koni question and chain stretch issue

[Tews19]

Over the winter I purchased a set of what the seller on eBay stated as hardly used Koni's from a 750. When I received them in the mail they were of course dirty but with a wipe down they looked nice. They have full compression and I attempted to install them on my K1. Well it ended up the threads were trashed...... I had them retapped and they worked fine. I have done about 150 miles on them and today it felt as if the rear of my bike had a flat. The rear would kind of shift side to side. I take the safe way home and check out the rear... Nothing. I check the tightness of my chain and I notice it is extremely loose. I adjusted the chain and noticed the bolts on the lower end of the Koni shock on the right side was loose. I tighten it and it just kept spinning. I removed the bolt and saw the threads have pulled from the shock.

I end up checking the left and it was the same. Am I able to get them retapped again? I didn't over tighten either as I thought this mat have been a reason for them to do this.

Lastly my chain was so loose I am down to the last 2 markers on the swing arm as well as the R/L tightener that are 12mm almost completely pushed in..... The chain has been lubed constantly and has about 3100-3200 miles. I may have an extra link on. Will I be able to simply remove a link or two or will I have to replace the chain???

Thanks in advance

[MCRider]

If the rear is shifting side to side, and steering the bike, that's likely swingarm pivot bushings. Any ovement lke that would do something to the shocks as a result.

The shocks do nothing to hold the swingarm in line. That's 100% the job of the pivot bushings.

Pinch the top and bottom row of the chan togetherat about the mid-point between the sprockets. Now, pull a link of the chain away from the rear sprocket at about 3:00 oclock. IF you can see daylight under the link its shot. If not, you an cut a few links out and keep using it.

[Tews19]

Man I hope it's not the swing arm bushings. I replaced those a few weeks ago. That would mean I somehow messed them up or even worse I messed up the swing arm itself.

[Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er]

A good high tensile strength expensive chain will stretch very little and require minimal adjustment. Keep it clean and lubed and don't over tighten. Bite the bullet and buy a good chain if you can afford it, you'll be glad you made the investment.  Tensile strength +/- 10,000 lbs.

[Trad]

If you just replaced them then I doubt it's the bushing itself. The swing arm should have been really snug after the bushing replacement. Could you have missed putting the end caps on between the ends of the bushings/swing arm and the frame?

[Tews19]

I got the bushings with flanges. I did use the end caps as well but no felt washer.

[bjbuchanan]

If the threads on the shock are shot you are gonna have to run nuts on them. Not enough meat for any type of insert there. My suggestion is to finagle the shock bolt in to the chain side and somehow work the guard in to place and use a nut with lock washer to secure. I'm not sure it can be done the other way tho, if it can that would be ideal...

You haven't said how many links you have in the chain from the start. If it is 102 you could technically burn a link now if it is a quality chain, cheap chain would be a waste of time anyway. If it is less than 102 I am honestly surprised, I have 2500 on my RK 102 link and it is half as far out on the spacers