How to clean a very rusty Skip Tooth chain

[Robert Troub]

Your thoughts are appreciated......I tried some watered down Evaporust.(don't ask) .....

 

[Euphman06]

If its real bad just get a new one, nothing like the chain snapping and having no way to stop.

Sent from my LGLS775 using Tapatalk

 

[Krakatoa]

Throw it away

 

[Rivnut]

There's a discussion on this down in the Etc. Forum in the Restoration Tips. Lots of different ideas.

 

[John G04]

I haven’t had an unfixable chain yet. I used brake clean and a brass brush to take a good amount of the grunge off, then wd40 to lube it, lacquer thinner and repeat with the wd40 or lacquer thinner until its mostly clean

 

[piercer_99]

lot's of patience and elbow grease.

it is a labor of love, or hate, depends on the chain.

As mentioned above, if you stumble across a new one, buy it, you can never have enough of them. The new old stock ones are really pretty also.

 

[piercer_99]

On the subject of pretty, they are pretty expensive also.

 

[Krakatoa]

On the subject of pretty, they are pretty expensive also.
View attachment 1264561

View attachment 1264562

Oh but oh so nice!

 

[gkeep]

Soak it a couple weeks in 80-90 wt gear oil and hit it with a brass brush, you'll be amazed what crude comes off. I rescued a stiff chain frozen with rust and have put at least 500 miles on it on my Pierce. The the gear oil stays in the rollers and can get all over everything. After 5 years I just took it off in July and soaked in a plastic container of simple green for a few hours, giving it a shake now and then. It has picked up lots sand and grit around here. After rinsing and drying it was still pretty oily in the rollers. I hit it with triflo for extra insurance. Wiped it down well and reinstalled.

I think there is a thread here about using gear oil, if you want to clean it after the gear oil you can always use something like naphtha or another solvent. Gear oil, smells horrible but seems to do the trick. Good luck.

 

[piercer_99]

Soak it a couple weeks in 80-90 wt gear oil and hit it with a brass brush, you'll be amazed what crude comes off. I rescued a stiff chain frozen with rust and have put at least 500 miles on it on my Pierce. The the gear oil stays in the rollers and can get all over everything. After 5 years I just took it off in July and soaked in a plastic container of simple green for a few hours, giving it a shake now and then. It has picked up lots sand and grit around here. After rinsing and drying it was still pretty oily in the rollers. I hit it with triflo for extra insurance. Wiped it down well and reinstalled.

I think there is a thread here about using gear oil, if you want to clean it after the gear oil you can always use something like naphtha or another solvent. Gear oil, smells horrible but seems to do the trick. Good luck.

the new synthetic gear oils are much more pleasant to work with.