sram master link a [censored] to open?

Quoted message said:

I got my first sram 8 speed chain and getting the master link closed was

not too

Quoted message said:

bad but getting it open no way. well not without tools. no way to squeeze

and

Quoted message said:

push with my fingers. I finally found tapping the link on the end did it.

but it

Quoted message said:

is hard to hold the chain so it is loose enough to do this. any hints?

--
Knight-Toolworks & Custom Planes Custom made wooden planes at reasonable prices See
knight-toolworks.comknight-toolworks.comOpen ↗ For prices and ordering instructions.

They're sometimes tough when new but they get easier over time to open. My general procedure is to
pinch the plates together while pushing from both ends with thumb and forefinger. Sometimes it helps
to push using one link on either side of the power link.

Rob Strickland

Steve Knight said:

I got my first sram 8 speed chain and getting the master link closed was not too bad but getting
it open no way. well not without tools. no way to squeeze and push with my fingers. I finally
found tapping the link on the end did it. but it is hard to hold the chain so it is loose enough
to do this. any hints?

Push links inwards and together inline hard at the same time then wiggle. Keep practising. I can
promise you it's quite easy once you get the knack. No need for any tools or tapping. Try some WD40
if chain is really gunked up.

~PB

Robert Strickland said:

Quoted message said:

I got my first sram 8 speed chain and getting the master link closed was not too bad but getting
it open no way. Well not without tools. No way to squeeze and push with my fingers. I finally
found tapping the link on the end did it. But it is hard to hold the chain so it is loose enough
to do this. Any hints?

Quoted message said:

They're sometimes tough when new but they get easier over time to open. My general procedure is to
pinch the plates together while pushing from both ends with thumb and forefinger. Sometimes it
helps to push using one link on either side of the power link.

My experience is the opposite. The links are easy to disengage when clean and new, and not manually
separable when used and dirty. The reason for this is apparent when considering the fit of its pins
in their slots. The pins have a neck and a mushroom top, both of which are intended to bear on the
side plate when in tension. To prevent inadvertent disengagement, the thin mushroom head is seated
in a relief in the side plate that is more than a semicircle and thereby prevents the pin from
sliding back under chain compression, manual or otherwise.

To remove the link, it must be laterally compressed enough for the mushroom heads of both pins to
rise above their retention recesses. When clean, this is possible because the chain has clearance
between side plates for making lateral bends for diagonal chainlines. With use, chains take up road
grit that gets into side plate lateral clearance as well as in other places. This means that the
PowerLink cannot be readily compressed and disengaged manually. I find standard household pliers
used diagonally across the length of the link opens it readily. Otherwise the side plates of the
link must be pressed together while adjacent links are rotated to expel grit so that they can move
inward to release the pins.

The reason for these retention recesses became obvious when I first tried a PowerLink with a new
chain on old sprockets. When the chain skipped, as is common with worn sprockets and new chain, the
PowerLink disengaged from the sudden acceleration and fell out. I retrieved the link from the road
and reinstalled it with no further problems. Later I could not manually remove it when it got dirty.

Jobst Brandt [email hidden]

"Pete Biggs" <[email hidden]> schreef in bericht
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Steve Knight said:

I got my first sram 8 speed chain and getting the master link closed was not too bad but getting
it open no way. well not without tools. no way to squeeze and push with my fingers. I finally
found tapping the link on the end did it. but it is hard to hold the chain so it is loose enough
to do this. any hints?

Push links inwards and together inline hard at the same time then wiggle. Keep practising. I can
promise you it's quite easy once you get the knack. No need for any tools or tapping. Try some
WD40 if chain is really gunked up.

~PB

Take an old spoke ore some strong iron wire, bent the ends so they can be hooked in the chain. Hook
this "tool"in the chain , over the powerlink, this way you can create some slack and work on the
link more easely.

"Steve Knight" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I got my first sram 8 speed chain and getting the master link closed was

not too

Quoted message said:

bad but getting it open no way. well not without tools. no way to squeeze

and

Quoted message said:

push with my fingers. I finally found tapping the link on the end did it.

but it

Quoted message said:

is hard to hold the chain so it is loose enough to do this. any hints?

--
Knight-Toolworks & Custom Planes Custom made wooden planes at reasonable prices See
knight-toolworks.comknight-toolworks.comOpen ↗ For prices and ordering instructions.

My Topeak minitool came with a little hook (stretched C-shape). With that hook you can pull and hold
the chain before and after the master link, so there is no tension on the masterlink section. Very
handy. You can easily make that hook yourself. Just modify a big paperclip.

Lou

"Frits" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Take an old spoke ore some strong iron wire, bent the ends so they can be hooked in the chain.
Hook this "tool"in the chain , over the powerlink, this way you can create some slack and work on
the link more easely.

Or just take the chain off your front chain ring. -Keith

Steve the easiest way is to derail the chain from the front and you will have plenty of loose chain.
If you have a ton of grit in the chain, then lube the master link first.

Many times it is so loose when I take them apart, I wonder how it holds together but they work
just fine.

Dave Steve Knight <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

I got my first sram 8 speed chain and getting the master link closed was not too bad but getting
it open no way. well not without tools. no way to squeeze and push with my fingers. I finally
found tapping the link on the end did it. but it is hard to hold the chain so it is loose enough
to do this. any hints?

In article <[email hidden]>, Steve Knight

Quoted message said:

I got my first sram 8 speed chain and getting the master link closed was not too bad but getting it
open no way. well not without tools. no way to squeeze and push with my fingers. I finally found
tapping the link on the end did it. but it is hard to hold the chain so it is loose enough to do
this. any hints?

I press the links on the ends with the pins and squeeze the links gently with needle nose pliers.

--
Mike Iglesias Email: [email hidden] University of California, Irvine phone: 949-824-6926
Network & Academic Computing Services FAX: 949-824-2069

Steve Knight <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

I got my first sram 8 speed chain and getting the master link closed was not too bad but getting
it open no way. well not without tools. no way to squeeze and push with my fingers. I finally
found tapping the link on the end did it. but it is hard to hold the chain so it is loose enough
to do this. any hints?

i often hear folks say that powerlinks are always impossible to open when gritty, or always easy to
open, etc. im convinced that everyone is right. as best as i can tell, there are good links and
there are bad links, and some will always be smoother to disengage. as another poster mentioned, the
tough links get easier as they get older, presumably as the wear results in a looser fit.

i get them off by pinching the chain into a 'z' shape, with the link as the diagonal bit in the
middle. in this way i am able to push the plates together and push the pins together at the same
time quite strongly. conveniently, if this is done on the bottom run of chain, it takes the tension
off the chain at the link, or perhaps even uses the tension in your favor.

if that doesnt do it, a little wiggling generally pops them loose. if the chain is seriously gummed
up, a little wiggling can translate to a lot of wiggling. ive never been forced to use tools or
wd-40 type solvent/lube on links that i knew were hand-openable, although the solvent flush does
make things go quicker (as in five seconds instead of 30 seconds). and if the powerlink is one of
the tight-tolerance-good-luck variety, then .. good luck. ive installed powerlinks that i coudlnt
close by hand, and had to move them to the upper run of the chain, and step on the crank to close
them. needless to say, i could not get those open by hand later.

anthony

O

Quoted message said:

Push links inwards and together inline hard at the same time then wiggle. Keep practising. I can
promise you it's quite easy once you get the knack. No need for any tools or tapping. Try some WD40
if chain is really gunked up.

I had lubed up the chain before I installed it so the power link was dry. oops
(G)

--
Knight-Toolworks & Custom Planes Custom made wooden planes at reasonable prices See
knight-toolworks.comknight-toolworks.comOpen ↗ For prices and ordering instructions.

O

Quoted message said:

I press the links on the ends with the pins and squeeze the links gently with needle nose pliers.

I wanted to do that but I did not have any small enough. story of my life with hand tools I never
have the right size (G)

--
Knight-Toolworks & Custom Planes Custom made wooden planes at reasonable prices See
knight-toolworks.comknight-toolworks.comOpen ↗ For prices and ordering instructions.

Quoted message said:

Or just take the chain off your front chain ring.

that's what I did. a real thin pair of needle nose pliers would squeeze the ling well too from
the middle.

--
Knight-Toolworks & Custom Planes Custom made wooden planes at reasonable prices See
knight-toolworks.comknight-toolworks.comOpen ↗ For prices and ordering instructions.

Steve Knight said:

I got my first sram 8 speed chain and getting the master link closed was not too bad but getting it
open no way. well not without tools.

If you don't have needle-nose pliers to hand, you can do it by hand even on a dirty chain by
positioning the master link midway round the chainring, pulling two extra links onto the chainring
and moving this slack around until the Powerlink is stuck up from the chainring on two loose links.

Now it is not under tension, and it is much easier to squeeze it together sideways and then
pull it apart.
--
David Damerell <[email hidden]> flcl?

Steve Knight said:

I got my first sram 8 speed chain and getting the master link closed was not too bad but getting
it open no way. well not without tools. no way to squeeze and push with my fingers. I finally
found tapping the link on the end did it. but it is hard to hold the chain so it is loose enough
to do this. any hints?

I usually find the more effort I put into these the more I'm fighting myself. Clean the side of the
chain with an old toothbrush and it should open very easily. It needs to slide with only light
pressure on the the sides.