When I installed a 17 tooth Countershaft Sprocket, I noticed that the stock 16 tooth Countershaft Sprocket was worn on the engine side of the sprocket. When adjusting the tension in the chain, is it possible to mis-align or **** the axle by mistake? How can I measure the mis-alignment and correct it?

 

Everything should just line-up. With the chain off and both sprockets on, look at the quad from the rear. Do they look like they line-up? Take a yard stick or similar straight edge to aid in the process.

Only thing I can think of would be either a shim or washer may be missing from the front sprocket resulting in a slight mis-alignment. Or, sprocket was installed backwards. Some sprockets have just a tad bit of curve to them (concave or convex depending how you look at it) or the teeth are off-set (not centered to the rest of the sprocket).

On my Kawasaki bikes it's possible to install the sprocket incorrectly with little notice. Upon doing so, would result in the situation you described.

Hope this helps!

 

KawasakiKid, It is difficult to eye the sprockets out to see if they are alligned. Also, I had trouble using the lardstick. What I ended up doing was jack the DS up and spin the rear tires with the chain on and look at how the chain naturally positions itself on the teeth of the countershaft sprocket. I noticed that spinning the rear wheels forward or reverse resulted in the chain moving outward, postioning itself against the inside of the countershaft sprocket. There is definitely some misalignment. The countershaft sprocket is not on backwards, I checked the service manual for the correct orientation. There appears to be no builtin adjustment on the countershaft sprocket. If there is no other solution I might be able to place a washer on the shaft before putting the sprocket on, but there is a splined lock washer that will no longer fit on the splines if I do this.

It turns out that the source of the problem is at the rear axle. I made some measurements from the left & right rims to the swingarm and determined that the axle is shifted to the right by about 1/4" to 1/8". This would explain why the chain is rubbing against the inside edge of the countershaft sprocket. The problem is I don't see any easy way to adjust the left/right orientation of the axle. I'll check the service manual, but I don't think it mentions this adjustment, but I could be wrong. I don't see how you can adjust the axle because the brake disk and rear sprocket holder seem to be up right against the swingarm and I don't understand what holds them in place on the axle. But, maybe if I loosen the bolts for the chain adjustment, the axle can be shifted slightly. Also, I haven't tried loosening the axle lock nut. It has loctite on it and I wanted to avoid loosening it unless I have to.

How do I resolve this problem?

 

I'll have to examine my quad better, but I would imagine the axle retainer lock would need to be loosened along with the chain adjustment nuts/bolts.

I'm not going to guess and lead you around in circles, the best thing to do would be, view the microfiche at a dealer to see how it's assembled.

 

I would not imagine an adjustment on the swing arm. Unfortunately it could be bent. There is a way to check square on the chasis( my banshee's bent frames all the time) anyway measure the distance from dead center of the lower ball joint across to the opposite rear corner (pick a point that is symetrical on the rear) then measure from the other front to rear if they are not the same something is bent. hope this helps

 

Excellent idea, I never thought of that! Good job!