The Hodaka Club Forum

OK. New problem. I now have all .420 sprockets $ a .420 chain. I bought the Chains & a bag of a half dozen master links from Hodaka-Parts.com before Terry bought Dan out. Everything fits nicely, except the ES420 master links don’t reach far enough through the chain links to fit the outer link cover and clip on the master link.

Here’s a photo with a section of the excess chain and the link in it. The groove for the master link clip barely sticks out past the edge of the inner link. What do I need here? I thought all.420 chains & links should match up. The mater links are even labeled ES420. If you zoom in you can read the link! At a loss here.... Victor

OK. I dig the box out for this chain. Thankfully I still had it. The master link was in the box, & the box says it’s a .428 chain. So I wonder why everything fits with the .420 sprockets and didn’t fit before when the countershaft sprocket was a .428???? Go figure.... Victor

I see you figured out why the link won't reach but also every manufacturer has different specs for pin diameter and lengths due to varying side plate widths, so you have to match chains and master links from the same manufacturer. I have five different sized 520 master links here in the shop and we still can't always match the 520 chain that needs a link.

Good to know. At least the 1/2 dozen .420 master links weren’t expensive. Victor

The other day I was going through my Sprockets and Chains and had a similar problem. It turned out that the master link I found that fits nothing is for a 423 Chain. It looked like a poorly stamped 8 . Now they have so many different master links it can drive one nuttier. Another Master link turned out to be for a 415 chain. I`m not sure but the Ultra strong 420 Chains that they sell now with the larger pins are actually a 423 Chain.I`ll study that one later on. Anyone know? Joe.