new chain, procedures?

[Rock Doctor]

alright experts... i finally got a little cash together to get back on the attex racer project. ordered chain and T-20 seals from motion industries on Monday and they were sitting on the front porch when i got home today! what do you guys do with new chain? do you remove the lube that came on it or just leave it and put good lube on top of that? how tight do i need it to start off? i know 1/2" deflection, but i also know it will stretch a lot when new. should i just set it as tight as possible for the initial run and then reset it after it stretches? one last thing. i ordered 30' and they sent me 3 ten foot boxes. it looks like the 4 axle chains will end up around 5 1/2 feet each. i have a breaker, but no way to put the short pieces back together. i can put 1 chain back together with 2 master links but i'd rather not. any easy way to put the side plates back on without a special tool, and if not where do i get the tool? thanks in advance for your help

No Expert here, but here is my 2 bits:

I totally agree with Whipper
Some of my chains have had as manny as 4 masters on it (Of course fewer is better)
Nothing wrong with Tsubaki chain, I use it too.
Do NOT set the chain as tight as possible, this could damage the chain, or the sprockets. Let it do it's "natural" stretch.


RD

[racerone3]

thanks whipper.
i went with us tsubsaki. the delay on this machine has been cash, but only because i want to build it right. i try not to half ass my toys back when i was kart racing we used to break master links all the time. nearly losing my right arm to one has always made me a little sketchy. we were also running #35 chain at high rpm's. we finally found a tool that would push out the pins and push them back in, hence a chain with no master links. if i had one of them to do #50 i would, but i'll just master link it

[whipper-ag]

I just leave the lube on the new chain and run it. As for splicing the chain together will 2 master links, I do it all the time. I don't even worry about it. Everytime I've broken a chain, it was not at a masterlink. I think a master link is just as strong as any other link. Besides, you just can't keep stockpiling 3' lengths of chain. Once again, don't buy the cheapest chain you can find. You get what you pay for.

Whipper

[racerone3]

alright experts... i finally got a little cash together to get back on the attex racer project. ordered chain and T-20 seals from motion industries on Monday and they were sitting on the front porch when i got home today! what do you guys do with new chain? do you remove the lube that came on it or just leave it and put good lube on top of that? how tight do i need it to start off? i know 1/2" deflection, but i also know it will stretch a lot when new. should i just set it as tight as possible for the initial run and then reset it after it stretches? one last thing. i ordered 30' and they sent me 3 ten foot boxes. it looks like the 4 axle chains will end up around 5 1/2 feet each. i have a breaker, but no way to put the short pieces back together. i can put 1 chain back together with 2 master links but i'd rather not. any easy way to put the side plates back on without a special tool, and if not where do i get the tool? thanks in advance for your help