Splitting Motorcycle Chain Without A Splitter

Something my dad taught me when I was a kid

[LxToranaHatchyhp]

Doesn't have fancy tools even to this day then pulls out an electric grinder haha

[RRaucina]

Back in the day we had a stone mounted in a electric drill! Worked fine before angle grinders were $9 and lasted as long as a Big Mac.

[Peterrides]

What i do sometimes is grind down the rivets and then take a wide flathead screwdriver and put it between the plate and link and just hammer at it. Takes like 4 minutes. You can do this while its still on the bike.

[YamahaXCRacer]

I used to do it this way...but you gotta love a Motion Pro chain breaker...

[xKYLAFORNIAx]

your dad gave you a grinder at 12? thought you said no special tools... if I had a grinder I wouldn't need to watch a video

[dunamon]

This is the best video for understanding how to break chains. Epically those of us who are new to this kind of thing. I was using a chainbreaker and was ruining the chain because those pins need to be ground down FIRST. Just did it your way and all is good. Thank You very much for your post!

[RideAMAP]

Thanks man for the video. I thought I was doing it correctly but it wasn't breaking free until I put the chain on the floor like you did. love the How to videos

[andrewmvenegas]

Well tour Dad’s method works well. If the chain is stuck Thru the bike frame, different story. Also, your example shows how easy it is to compromise the links next to the one being removed, so wishing you had emphasized this point. Please don’t take me wrong, I appreciate you for posting this. Happy riding.

[cj]

you and your fancy smancy grinder, i hand file my links apart!! LOL

[ianfoehr]

Just did this for the first time. Instead of the flat metal use you smallest socket. It fits over the rivet but hits the edge of the link perfectly. 360 degrees of contact. Nail punch and 3 hits, out.

[clat]

"Without any special tools"
Pulls out $80 angle grinder....

[silkcustoms]

My Dad never taught me this but just did this last night when my chain breaker broke.

[gpalarry]

I remember 40 years ago having small chain splitter with half link and master wraped around my kick starter on my shovel head had to use on round and sure glad I had it if I remember they weren't expensive

[franknewcomb]

All you need is and over sized nut underneath no grinding and hit it and it come out same as if your using a chain breaker which I do have, no extra link needed . 

[PittheadX]

That's like climbing mount everest just to see snowfall

[PorkyPorkchop]

My step dad taught me how to do this last year, it works great!

[PtrG]

I don't even know any other method.

[SuperBmxbadass]

I have never used a grinder to flatten the rivets. I have a block of aluminum with a hole drilled in it. I set the rivet head in the hole or over it and take a hammer and hit it with the sit of the hammer head. Then use a punch to finish it.

[mAdAsZaC]

Instead of punching the pins out, Put the chain on the sprocket get a old flat head screwdriver that has a smaller tip than the length of the pins and hit it with a hammer (after grinding the rivets off) will take less time its what we used to do in a motorcycle shop i used to work in its quite time effective

[jayryan]

This is one of those jobs where you want to go easy with the grinder. Too much pressure and you can melt the two pieces together and make punching the rivet through more difficult. There have been times when I didn't have a nut for a screw so I pulled out my grinder and used it to melt the screw to the metal I was working on (don't use this on critical components obviously).