Chain Half-Links Any Good

rohmell

rohmell

Active Member
I have a project that I am working on and one chain link makes the difference between the chain being too long or too short, so I am wondering if the half-links are good and reliable to use in a build, or are they just a gimmick?

Half Link.jpg
 
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Half links have been around for years and used successfully in many applications. There are some who will tell you that master and half liks are source of problems but then there are hundreds if not thousands of motorbikes and industrial uses for them and they seem to work well if installed correctly. I like the half links that rely on the small cotter pin as opposed to the spring type. Buy quality industrial grade items and stay away from the cheap big box/department store variety.
Tom
 
One vendor states:

"When installing face the cotter pin out or it will catch on Chain Gear cover".

To me, this is contradicting. If the cotter pin is facing out, then it is facing the side where the chain gear cover is located.
 
Yeah, mine caught the cover all right, put a nice scratch in it. So I dremeled out the scratch and it it still was clunky.

I gave up and removed it.

No clunky.
 
I used a half-link on my RM 250 cc Suzuki watercooled motor on my gokart. It used a 420 chain. 66 horse power and 18" of ground contact, not the inch a bike has and never had a problem. Like 2door said use the ones with a cotter pin, much more reliable.
 
Like 2door said use the ones with a cotter pin said:
Agreed. I have used both and the one with the cotter pin worked great. The other one put me in the hospital. Caused my chain to wrap the axle and lock up the rear wheel.
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They make a chain that uses nothing but half-links. A foot or two of this type of chain, and I would have enough half-links for the rest of my life.

Maybe this type of link is better than the ones that use springs or cotter pins because they are press-fit like a normal roller chain, and no protrusions to catch on anything?


halflink kmc_pt710.jpg
 
Well, I was going to purchase 10 of these half-links from a vendor that advertises here, but when I saw the ridiculous charges for shipping 10 little half-links, I removed this vendor from my favorites list, and bought the items on eBay instead.
suckyshipping.jpg
 
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