squeaker wrote:O-rings? I am so out of touchOldLimey wrote:One of the parts I couldn't save was the tiny O rings. They were like wire not much thicker than a human hair, and they built up around the chain tool pin, making it very hard to get them off. I used a sharp knife and pointed pliers to remove them.
I knew motorcycle chains used them, but bikes? Was the original a KMC chain? Any idea which one?
I had heard that chains have O rings in them, but as I dismantled this chain, I wondered where the O rings were. Then I saw a couple of pieces by the parts on the blue cloth. If you look carefully, you can see them on the left in the original post. I wasn't sure at the time if they were bits of O ring, but once I was done I knew that's what they were. The chain tool I used to push the pins out, had most of them bunched up against the threaded part of the tool. I wasn't even sure it wasn't a part of the tool. I scraped at them with a Stanley knife and it was like scraping a threaded bolt. As tiny pieces began to break away I put my pointed pliers to them and twisted them off. I was surprised how hard they were.
Each end of each pin I punched out, had a very tiny ridge, and it seems the O rings must have been under them. They were definitely on the outside of the outer plates because they all ended up on the part of the tool that punched them out. I took a macro shot of one of the outer plates; notice there is a recess where the O rings probably sat, and held in by the pin. Click on the picture to enlarge it.
Yes, it was a KMC chain. Each of the outer plates has the name stamped into it but no other markings.