I have a looming bike engined project that needs to be chain driven,looking for suggestions on where to buy cheap sprockets and chain to survive 160ish hp and approx 1200lbs. I'd like the sprockets to be blanks so I can machine them to fit in place of the ring gear on the diff.Steel would be prefered.
Thanks in advance.
sprockets and chain are luckily inexpensive items.
If I were doing what you are I would stop by the McGuire bearing down the street from me. You might have to pick your own local industrial bearing/power transmission supplier. They know what they are doing and will be able to tell you what chain pitch and if you need double or triple row chain. sprockets will be available in darn near unlimited tooth counts so you can set your ratios to whatever you need. They will also be avaliable as undrilled blanks intended to be machined to suit.
In another life I did all the CAD drawings, CNC machining, and purchasing for a large-ish metal fab shop.
We made a lot of hydraulic motor powered things, we bought in bulk but sourced 95% of our love-joys, chain/sprocket, couplers, etc. from Motion Industries.
For random single run/prototype stuff we'd check Grainger to see if they had something that would work in stock, most of the time they didn't. If we were going to have to wait to order something, we'd just hit up McMaster Carr because they were usually cheaper on the one time stuff.
As former motorcycle industry guy and motorcycle roadracer, and a current racer of an older GSXR 1000 powered Radical D sports racer I can offer a little of what I've learned through experience. Some of which was the painful and/or expensive variety.
Chains and sprockets can be cheap. Good chains and sprockets are never cheap. Actually, cheap is relative. A cheap chain for example, which in the process of failure wraps around the countershaft sprocket and takes the engine cases, and due to a huge force input to both the shift shaft and countershaft destroys the transmission? Not so cheap anymore.
Modern liter bike all use top-quality 630 O (or X) ring chains, generally from Tsubaki, RK, EK, and Regina. Sprockets are generally hardened steel up front and cad-plated steel in the rear. Racers like aluminum rear sprockets to save unsprung+rotating weight. Sprocket Specialists is good for oddball applications (ie they can make to your print) and Vortex is good for common applications.
A couple things to consider:
I'm using a stock steel countershaft sprocket, the heaviest duty Tsubaki 630 chain, and have a bunch of aluminum split sprockets to effect changes with the diff in the car.
Non-O ring chains will fling all the lube out in minutes and run incredibly hot. I believe Kevin Cameron recently wrote in Cycle World about this phenomenon as it related to open-chain primary drives on British bikes in the dark ages. A drip oiler was good for 5hp or something.
The tensile rating of modern chains is pretty amazing, and kept clean they wear very well. Chail lube is only for the contact points of rollers and links - I used Motorex for years, but recently ran out and switched to Motul. Apply when the chain is hot - allow to cool before use. I lube when I prep the car, again after qualifying, and after the Saturday race. I clean the chain with WD40 on a shop rag + a brush during pre-race prep.
I'd suggest Bike Bandit or Ron Ayers for chains and countershaft sprockets, measure the flange the chain will go on and contact Sprocket Specialists for help there.
BTW - I just bought an EK O-ring chain, a steel OEM equivalent front and Sprocket Specialist rear sprocket to convert my Yamaha RD400 Daytona to 520 sized driveleine. The whole deal was about $175.
One of the more common motorcycle chains, 520 or 530, is same spacing as a pretty common industrial chain. This means you can order the chain and front sprocket from Dennis Kirk or wherever and a rear sprocket from Tractor Supply or McMaster Carr.
There may also be value in enclosing your drive chain so that it can splash lube with oil. If it works for thousands of miles in a transfer case it'll probably work fine on a bike engined car.
cheap sprockets and chain to survive 160ish hp and approx 1200lbs....
for how long?
AutoX, drags, road course?
Some replace chains in DSRs after 4 weekends--some last 4 seasons. I replace ours once a season. I'm using a 530 RK X-ring with sprocket specialists front steel sprocket (14t) and 56t aluminum hard-anodized rear sprocket. The rear was from SFRE--but actually made by Sprocket Specialists.
+1 on Sprocket Specialists. I used to buy blanks from them with a center hole and CNC lightness into them.
Very good quality stuff.
-1 on sprocket specialists---this thread reminded me that I've got an order for a 14t 530 sprocket that I placed months ago--still backordered. I gave up and ordered one from another vendor.
Good product---but I think their move to a new location has sucked the goodness out of their customer service.
Thanks for the info,I can't use stock front sprockets as there is a jack shaft off where the stock countershaft used to be.I need blanks to mill to the shaft OD and cut a keyway. The chains will be LONG with 2 tensioners/guides per loop(awd so 2 loops of chain)to try and keep ocilation under control.I'm familiar with the lack of a cush drive,the engine I'm using is already in a scratch built BEC but with shaft drive.
The car is for ice racing and each race is only 12 laps(around a minute per lap)so I'm not really all that worried about heat due to the short duration and cold temps. What size industrial chain is equivolent to the usual 520/530/630 bike chain?.
http://www.gizmology.net/sprockets.htm
there's a chart w/ ANSI and MC chain dimensions if that helps
In reply to fasted58:
Thats awesome!,thanks my friend.I'm on the hunt for # 60 chain and sprockets which matches up with the recommended 630 mc size.
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