chain wear?

[Rick B]

Hi to all,

I am getting ready to start the reassembly of my 2.2 to 2.38 rebuild. How do I determine if the chain needs replacement? It has less than 100K miles on it.

a second question: is a master link chain better or worse for future repairs since it can be removed without breaking the case apart?

Thanks.

Rick

[JJ 911SC]

Post a picture of the sprockets.

[Walt Fricke]

Rick

The standard advice is always to replace the chain and all the sprockets at one time.

Me, I have not followed that, and look at wear. But that is on race motors, which don't go 100K miles. Not a bad idea to replace all this if you are worried about keeping it.

With the case apart, I'd not use a master link. They don't seem to have issues (at least, not regularly). But you can remove a standard chain for replacement (if willing to run a new chain on old IS gears) without splitting the case. You can grind/cut off the ends of the cross pins, pop off the link, and slide the other part out the back. Then use your new master link to hook the new chain onto the old, and carefully wind things through.

I did this with my 2.7 back when it was new to me. Not because I knew there were issues, but because I had read about chain stretch, and was installing Carrera tensioners, and thought it was the thing to do. I should probably have just skipped that.