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Chain rubbing front sprocket cover

1009 Views 8 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  yellabeard, 
Kevwa451
So like the title says, it appears my chain is rubbing the front sprocket cover on my ‘23 890 Adventure. It’s wearing grooves into the bottom and top of the cover, chain tension and alignment is perfect according to everything I can find online and in my shop manual. I clean and check chain tension religiously. Ridden mostly off-road since new, currently has 1800 miles on it, anything outside of the obvious I should be looking at? It seems like it happens primarily on deceleration.

I was going to drill out the holes just a little bit to slide the cover forward some more. I’ve got a Vanasche sprocket cover/ case saver on the way but thought I’d see if anyone has had this happen and found something out of the ordinary that I’m not thinking of. The dealership had the chain way way too tight when I picked it up, I’ve got it adjusted a hair on the tight side of the exact specs (I.E. 5mm clearance to the swing arm following chain tensioning procedure).
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yellabeard
Kevwa451 said:
So like the title says, it appears my chain is rubbing the front sprocket cover on my ‘23 890 Adventure. It’s wearing grooves into the bottom and top of the cover, chain tension and alignment is perfect according to everything I can find online and in my shop manual. I clean and check chain tension religiously. Ridden mostly off-road since new, currently has 1800 miles on it, anything outside of the obvious I should be looking at? It seems like it happens primarily on deceleration.

I was going to drill out the holes just a little bit to slide the cover forward some more. I’ve got a Vanasche sprocket cover/ case saver on the way but thought I’d see if anyone has had this happen and found something out of the ordinary that I’m not thinking of. The dealership had the chain way way too tight when I picked it up, I’ve got it adjusted a hair on the tight side of the exact specs (I.E. 5mm clearance to the swing arm following chain tensioning procedure).
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I have a '22 model, found similar wear marks on the cover inside. Upon thorough cleaning of chain and cover I decided the cover inside has a peculiar design and much less worn than I initially thought. Also, the chain seemed rather stiff in some places, void of any looseness, showed no wear whatsoever. Nothing else out of the ordinary. All this around 2500 miles. I plan to check & clean regularly, address this item with dealer at service #2 if not sooner. Good luck.
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Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
A picture of this strangeness would be awesome ?
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yellabeard
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot said:
A picture of this strangeness would be awesome ?
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These pix were taken today, almost 6000 mi. on 22 890 Adv s. It seems most of the wear is on front inside of cover. Feedback, advice welcomed and thank you!
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Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
I'm wondering IF you might have miss aligned the cover (got one bolt in the right hole and maybe got the other one to screw in by chance by friction of the outside of the plate that may hold the screw hole in place) Sorry that was hard to describe ? Have a look at BOTH holes when the screws hold the cover in place, IF they both look like they have had screws in the holes (IE clean with no dirt or oil from chain ) then that would confirm the screws were both in place , and I have no further ideas ?
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yellabeard
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot said:
I'm wondering IF you might have miss aligned the cover (got one bolt in the right hole and maybe got the other one to screw in by chance by friction of the outside of the plate that may hold the screw hole in place) Sorry that was hard to describe ? Have a look at BOTH holes when the screws hold the cover in place, IF they both look like they have had screws in the holes (IE clean with no dirt or oil from chain ) then that would confirm the screws were both in place , and I have no further ideas ?
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I believe the technical term for that is cockeyed. Kidding. Thanks for input WTF. 3 screws and screw-holes appeared clean, old dried Loctite seemed evenly distributed on screws. These 2 pix show 2 parallel partial moon-shaped indentions or gouges on inside of cover. Perhaps when these were made it distorted the shaped of the cover. IDK.

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Kevwa451
Those are way worse than mine, no rubbing on the front of the cover for me, just the top and bottom. I’m guessing my chain jumps a little on decel, I can hear it when I’m riding it. Also ran the bike on the rear stand with the cover off and saw it jump just a little when I close the throttle. I can’t find any obvious tight spots in the chain or anything, this CZ chain seems way better made than the one on my Duke. Wondering if it’s just the design of the cover and the extra slack there seems to be on these ADV bikes. I also tightened the cover as far forward as I could and that seemed to help but didn’t get a chance to ride it to check.
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Kevwa451
Pictures of my rubbing spots, sorry I didn’t clean it first, snapped these when I was installing the Vanasche cover/case saver.



Seems the new cover has a little more room than stock. Don’t hear the chain contacting anything. I do get a bit more chain noise in general having it open like that but it’s not bad.
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yellabeard
Kevwa451 said:
Pictures of my rubbing spots, sorry I didn’t clean it first, snapped these when I was installing the Vanasche cover/case saver. View attachment 113932
View attachment 113930
View attachment 113931
View attachment 113929 View attachment 113933 Seems the new cover has a little more room than stock. Don’t hear the chain contacting anything. I do get a bit more chain noise in general having it open like that but it’s not bad.
Click to expand...
Kevwa451 said:
Pictures of my rubbing spots, sorry I didn’t clean it first, snapped these when I was installing the Vanasche cover/case saver. View attachment 113932
View attachment 113930
View attachment 113931
View attachment 113929 View attachment 113933 Seems the new cover has a little more room than stock. Don’t hear the chain contacting anything. I do get a bit more chain noise in general having it open like that but it’s not bad.
Click to expand...
Nice upgrade. Easier to clean, inspect front chain area.
Beware pants legs flapping in the wind!

I was at the nearest dealer for parts pickup and showed him pix of my inside cover. He said probably loose chain, we ordered new cover for $13.99+. Guess I'll be doing more checking and adjusting.
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