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Chainbreaking without a chainbreaker
by fairtrade | 04 Mar 2006 12:20 am
Bah, who needs chainbreakers?
Ever faced the common dilemma of having a snapped chain, and not having a chainbreaker? Well, here's a simple way of breaking and re-assembling the chain, with household tools.
What you need:
Hammer
2mm Allen or Torx bit, to act as a pin, may be changed with any available object that vaguely resembles a pin
4mm, 5mm or 3mm socket (does not have to be 12 point as in the picture as long as pin fits through)
Method:
1.) Place the socket on the ground, with the hex head upwards.
2.) Place your chain on the socket so that the amount of pin sticking out of the link rests inside the socket. If the chain is still on the bike, you can still do this, by turning the bike sidewards.
3.) Rest the hex bit on top of the pin, holding it there with your fingers, or with vicegrips.
4.) This is where it gets really technical. Take the hammer, and smash the pulp out of the hex bit. Not too hard, as that will make the pin come out completely. A picture tells a thousand words, but in this case, its twelve.
5.) Try to pry apart the chain, if it does not split, keep moving the pin out with light taps.
6.) The most common reason for a chain snapping is a bad interface between the pin, and plates. We're going to fix that, by giving the pin a nice mushroomed lip. This is purely optional. Remove the pin from the link completely.
6.i) Place the pin through the hole in a pair of inner plates and rest the setup on the ground. This will keep the pin standing, to allow you to bash it with a hammer.
6.ii) Bash the crap out of the top of the pin. You will notice that it begins to create a lip on both sides, one lip being formed by the hammer, the other by the ground. Do this until there is a 1mm wide lip.
7.) To put the chain back together, after you have done what you need to, place the chain on the bike, exactly how it should go. Connect the ends so that they rest on the sprocket. This will prevent acts of stupidity, which often happen at this point.
8.) Still keeping the connected ends together, take the chain off the sprocket, and rest the ends on the ground, extended pin pointing up.
9.) Getting into technicalities again, all you have to do now, is smash that pin back in with the hammer.
10.) To get the pin dead centered, re-assemble everything as shown in the picture and just use light taps to get it right.
11.) Collect your degree in "Applied Mechanical Engineering in the Ghetto" from the front desk.
Hopefully, this will save you hours of grief trying to line up a chainbreaker, I know it does for me. No "pfft, I'd rather use a chainbreaker" comments please, I've heard that a billion times and I prefer this method over any chainbreaker. By the way, the Park-Tool CT-7 is a great chainbreaker, worth the price if you are THAT sketchy.
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