[sagefilio]

Hello!

Name's Ben, I've been lurking on this here forum for about a year and I finally have a reason to post.

I recently had to replace the swingarm on my 2013 C5 (long story) and while I was reinstalling I came upon a part that the catalogue calls a Pad Assy. - Rear Chain. I've included a photo with the part boxed in red. There is no other mention of this thing in any shop manual, etc. that I can find. A few questions:

• What does this do?
• What angle should it align with on the swingarm?
• It's currently installed on the bike and the larger top piece seems to rub up against the chain. This seems bad. Thoughts?

Thanks in advance for any help and this forum in general has been super helpful. Ya'll are awesome.

-Ben

[pmanaz1973]

I took a look at my 2014 C5 and mine is the same.
-It is a chain guide/pad
-Mine appears almost level (10 degrees tilt towards the rear of the bike) with the bike on the center stand.
-My chain floats about 1/8 above the guide/pad while the bike is on the center stand.
-My pad has a little wear where the chain has rubbed - I suspect that is 100% normal, but constant contact may indicate too lose of chain or improper angle on the pad.

It appears this pad/guide helps the chain maintain a consistent angle as it enters the engine cover that houses the drive sprocket - primarily as the swingarm moves up and down.  I've seen these on all of my dirt bikes and never noticed it before on my RE. 

[johno]

That's exactly it, a chain guide/guard to stop the chain rubbing on the swing-arm and also from trashing the engine cover if things move out of true.
when my swing-arm pivot bolt had worn away the nylon bushes in the swing-arm, allowing the assembly to move side to side, the guard took the brunt of the chain lash and although it did fracture (its only hard plastic) it prevented damage to the engine and swing-arm allowing me to just replace the guard, bushes and pivot bolt and not a complete swing-arm assembly.

[sagefilio]

Thanks so much for the info! Adjusted the angle now it doesn't rub.