It's normal.
Leave it a little looser knowing it will tighten slightly as the nut become tightened.

 

Another option is to flip your axel so the nut is on the right side. Also good for it not grinding away if you slide, it uses the exhaust as a crash bung!


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We always recommend this...... This way you are tightening the axle nut towards the blocks and swingarm, rather than away, where it always seems to pick up a little more chain.

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yes using the exhaust is very practical way to protect the axle nut! but its the way all my bikes are set up

 

Lol, my exhaust is nearly worth less than my axel nut so I'm not completely crazy!!!!


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I put a 3/16" srewdriver in between the sprocket and chain roll it back 2 links then tighten everything, roll the driver out and tension should be PERFECT?

 

This ^^^^
At race meetings your pulling wheels in and out in a hurry. This method keeps tension against the adjusters while you torque up the nut. Never need to touch adjusters when changing. Even the tops teams use the same method. You can use anything to tension the chain against sprocket even a rag and roll the wheel back until chain tensions.

 

Thank you all for your replies!
Now I know that's normal, nothing missing or out of alignament.
I've tried the screwdriver trick, but it didn't help much, maybe I didn't rolled wheel back enough to tension it properly.

Anyway, I'm flipping my axle for the two advantages, as I already tested the excellent capability of the exhaust as a crash bung. :biggrin

Thanks!
:cheers

 

If you've noticed, the swingarm will spring open as axle nut is loosened. When tightening. the swingarm will close back up, forcing the rear sprocket further out than expected, hence making the chain tighter than wanted. I slowly tighten axle nut to see which way chain is going, if appears to be right, finish tightening and recheck slack.

 

That's pretty much what I have experienced.
If turning the axle around eliminates the condition though, then there's your easy solution.
In theory, the axle block under the nut does not turn so nut rotation really should not be effected.
I think that the splaying of the swing arm is the root cause for the all too common condition.

 

This is good info (turnig axle the other way). I will have to do it on mine!

 

Definitely good to know, I was having the same problem :cheers

 

A bit late on this thread, but this is great info... Gotta love the search function! I had the same thing happen this weekend to my newly acquired L2 750. Chain got waaay too tight...I knew bad things may happen if I rode it so walked away until I could find a fix here. So good to know simply reversing the axle/nut position will fix the overtightening of the chain when torquing the axle nut to spec. Thank You!

:cheers