This tool was never designed for bicycle chains the pin is too fat. However it can be made to work if you are careful. Instead of pushing one chain pin almost all the way through you push two chain pins just through the outer link. Photo below. The reason I am bothering you with this is they have a better idea. There are two screws. The outer screw can clamp the chain in position. The inner screw then pushes the tool pin through the inner screw. There is far less bending stress on the tool pin. It can only deflect as far as the tolerance allows. If you don't have to worry about bending stress on the tool pin it can be made much harder. This was not done here but it is file hard. Mine came with two pins. I ground off the countersink part to make it a bit shorter. This allows me to put a loose chain pin down the barrel and reinsert it into the chain. Shimano pins are bulged a bit on the end but a diamond nail file will fix it quickly. If you just want to break a chain this is the tool you want. There is a 14mm nut which allows to to use a lot of leverage. You can then use your bike extra tool to push the chain pin farther if that is what you want. Hopefully some one will make precision too pins for bicycle chains. They may also want to redesign the anvil to hold curved side plates better. https://flic.kr/p/2obVdxh
Harbor Freight Chain Tool
- Thread starter zerodish
- Start date
ZeroEm
1 MW
Might be wrong, looks like a motorcycle chain breaker.
Mine is more like this:
Mine is more like this:
I'm glad you got the HF tool to work for you....but unless they have done some serious work on improving materials and manufacturing processes, that HF tool is on balance a piece of crap. 
![52632089518_d32502dc3a_b[1].jpg](https://endless-sphere.com/sphere/data/attachments/190/190341-a6cd1e3f2e55c78e9d60a00498161017.jpg "52632089518_d32502dc3a_b[1].jpg")
I tried to help a friend use one several years ago (the design hasn't changed from what I can see) and it cracked one of the plate tabs off (which you can do even with good ones if you use them wrong, but it was used right). We worked around that and then the pin bent. It came with a spare with a slightly smaller tip (not bicycle sized, but slightly smaller than the MC chain pins on the Kawasaki he was fixing) so we used that and it was working, but half a link later the threads in the pin screw jammed--it had galled and stripped inside the cast portion.
FWIW, I've used a (good) MC breaker on bicycle chain by pulling out the (replaceable) pin and using a small screwdriver shaft of the right size (which I'd broken off a "jewelry screwdriver" some years before that by misusing it in a way I don't recall) wrapped in tape to more or less center it in the larger hole. It took some patience and doing, but it eventually worked to get the bad link out (I used a master link to put it back together so I wouldnt' have to deal with the tool again, though).
I had a great Suntour or Sunrace (cant' remember for sure) breaker I used for years but one day the threads jammed and it could not be turned with any amount of force in either direction. I suspect debris in the threads as the cause, as it's hard to keep dust or dirt or dog hair out of things around here, especially when working on projects I have to do out in the yard like bike stuff, as the dogs love to help. The new version of the tool is not as ergonomic and is harder to hold and use because of that, but it has worked just fine for it's job so far, and is more adjustable for certain things. Neither one was expensive, but I can't find any links that look like either of them right now.
FWIW Iv'e had a couple of versions virtually identical to the picture ZeroEm posted, but both of them were far worse than the HF tool, both having thread problems with the diecast main portion, and the rod thru the threaded pin holder bending and deforming (same thing that has happened to the rod on every clamp I've gotten from HF, too--metal is just too soft). Eventually breaking at the threads, IIRC.
I tried to help a friend use one several years ago (the design hasn't changed from what I can see) and it cracked one of the plate tabs off (which you can do even with good ones if you use them wrong, but it was used right). We worked around that and then the pin bent. It came with a spare with a slightly smaller tip (not bicycle sized, but slightly smaller than the MC chain pins on the Kawasaki he was fixing) so we used that and it was working, but half a link later the threads in the pin screw jammed--it had galled and stripped inside the cast portion.
FWIW, I've used a (good) MC breaker on bicycle chain by pulling out the (replaceable) pin and using a small screwdriver shaft of the right size (which I'd broken off a "jewelry screwdriver" some years before that by misusing it in a way I don't recall) wrapped in tape to more or less center it in the larger hole. It took some patience and doing, but it eventually worked to get the bad link out (I used a master link to put it back together so I wouldnt' have to deal with the tool again, though).
I had a great Suntour or Sunrace (cant' remember for sure) breaker I used for years but one day the threads jammed and it could not be turned with any amount of force in either direction. I suspect debris in the threads as the cause, as it's hard to keep dust or dirt or dog hair out of things around here, especially when working on projects I have to do out in the yard like bike stuff, as the dogs love to help.
The new version of the tool is not as ergonomic and is harder to hold and use because of that, but it has worked just fine for it's job so far, and is more adjustable for certain things. Neither one was expensive, but I can't find any links that look like either of them right now. FWIW Iv'e had a couple of versions virtually identical to the picture ZeroEm posted, but both of them were far worse than the HF tool, both having thread problems with the diecast main portion, and the rod thru the threaded pin holder bending and deforming (same thing that has happened to the rod on every clamp I've gotten from HF, too--metal is just too soft). Eventually breaking at the threads, IIRC.
ZeroEm
1 MW
:lol: Is there any good one's.
The one in my possession came free with my trike in a assembly kit. So i'm sure it's cheaper than any here.
The one in my possession came free with my trike in a assembly kit. So i'm sure it's cheaper than any here.
ZeroEm said:
Well, so far the Suntour/sunrace (can't recall which) ones I've used are both good (failure of the first one was probably my fault for not ensuring nothing got into the threads to jam it). I keep dozing off so will have to be later (or tomorrow) but I can get pics of them and whatever model numbers they have on them (if any), or at least do a reverse image search to find matching ones.
