I was going to make a set of chain tensioners for my car for the upcoming race at PIR and didn't know if anyone else has used them or not. From anyone's experience, how did you like them? I do know that it does prevent the drive wheel from getting jerked forward if you go from a dead stop and punch the throttle. Are there any disadvantages to using them?
The only negative that I know of is the extra friction from the drag against the chain and the rotational drag of the bearing. The advantage is it would take out slop in the chain and possibly help with chain derailment.
No one that I recall has used one in years (we used to see a few of them in the PGE days).
I wouldn't make is so tight that it was using more power than I wanted to. It would be just enough to keep the chain a little slack but prevent wheel jerk if I punched the throttle hard. I've done this before when practicing and it takes a couple minutes to get the car back to the pits and re-adjust the drive wheel so it's straight and tensioned properly again. Hopefully the chain tensioners should do the trick.
Zaine
-- Edited by Zaine Stapleton on Tuesday 10th of May 2011 07:07:35 PM
Are you talking about a device to work on the chain itself to keep the 'slack' out of the chain or are you talking about a device like motorcycles use to hold the drive wheel's axle in place and not slide forward? AT WHS we have used a lot of devices to hold the axle back so the motors pull did not make the axle slip on the plates that hold it. The work great. If you want to stop by I will show you some that we have made--might even have a set that would work for you. Mike
