Hi John Talley here with Partzilla.com.
Today we're looking at our 2007 Honda TRX400EX.
Specifically, we're going to look at the chain and the front and rear drive gears, as well
as your chain guides.
We're going to take a look at them and evaluate them.
You pretty much want to do this every time before you get on the machine.
You especially want to look at the chain slack adjustment.
I can go ahead and tell you, just from an initial look, this one is way out of wack
and that can cause problems that we're going to discuss later.
So zoom on in and let's take a look at it.
Alright, the first thing we need to do is take a look at the chain slack.
It should be around an inch and three-eights, let's see where this one is.
That looks right around two and a half, so that's way too much.
What happens when your chain has slack is basically it's just flopping back and forth,
and you don't really have a good connection between the throttle and the rear wheels.
So that really needs to be tightened up a pretty good bit.
The trick is here not to over-tighten it.
Because if you do, when the suspension is moving up it will put even more stress on
the chain and it can actually break.
Alright, to set the slack, you want to loosen up these four allen heads on the back side
of the hub.
And the hub is actually what they call a concentric hub.
Once I get these loosened up I'll show you what it looks like.
Alright, this is a concentric hub.
And what you'll see is the pivot point here compared to the outside is offset, so when
you pull it back, that tightens the chain, and when you move it forward, that loosens
it.
Alright, to tighten her up, insert your socket into one of the slots, and pull toward you.
Let's look at our measurement... that looks like it right there.
About an inch and three-eighths.
Right there.
With that set, you can re-tighten down your pinch bolts on the hub, and then we can start
looking at the chain, the sprockets, and the guides to see what kind of shape they're in.
The chain looks to be in pretty good shape.
I don't see any kinks, just needs to be cleaned up a little bit.
What I prefer to use is some Honda chain cleaner; fairly simple, just spray it down, brush it
in a little bit and then spray it back off.
Once the chain is clean you need to re-coat it with some chain lube.
And that's really important for the life of the chain and the sprockets, especially the
chain guides.
You have two guides, there's one on the bottom cover right here, this is what is looks like.
Basically the chain just rides over that area.
If that gets dried up it will wear out really quick.
Up front, right behind the front sprocket over the front of the swingarm is another
guide.
That's the one you really need to keep an eye on because there's a lot of stress and
a lot of friction going across that point.
Alright, looking at our sprocket, it really looks to be in good shape.
What you're looking for here is just a uniform shape in between each point, like this new
one.
Just want to have it look uniform from point to point.
As you can see in this picture, when they get worn they start to get elongated, and
worse than that they can actually start cracking off the teeth.
From here, let's go ahead and get her cleaned up.
Spray this down, let is set for about 30 seconds, start brushing it off just to get off any
outside gunk, mud, dirt, whatever.
Go straight down the middle as well to get it out of those links.
Now what you want to do is put the machine back on the ground, take it outside, spray
it down with some water, bring it back in, and then we'll re-coat it with some chain
lube.
So I'll be back in just a minute.
Alright, we've got her back inside, the only thing that is left to do is just to lubricate
the chain.
So, shake up our chain lube, start spinning the tire.
I usually start at the top of the chain, then move down here to do the inside of the chain.
And that's really all there is to this whole process.
Alright, from here, we can just put the tire back on and go take her for a spin.
Listen, if your chain and your sprockets do show any wear on either one, you really need
to replace them as a set.
Do yourself a favor.
Otherwise if you put a new rear sprocket and a new chain on a front sprocket that's worn
out it's gonna wear out the chain twice as fast, at least.
Well listen, I appreciate you watching, and if you have any questions or comments just
put them below and I'll do my best to answer them.
Until next time, be safe out there.
Thank you.