Thought I would post my experience with a seized adjuster on my 1999. I bought it last year with 7500 miles on it. Did a bunch of work on it but tore my ACL playing soccer so it sat for a while. I was a previous Gen 5 owner and always regretted getting rid of it so I found the lowest mile, best one I could. The previous owner didn't have a clue about chain care. So, this year, despite low miles, I decided to change the chain and sprockets. Was surprised that the hub adjuster wouldn't budge. I messed with it for about an hour and rechecked the manual and postings and I was doing everything right and I had one of these before! It's an elegant design if it works. Also, the adjuster itself was kind of dinged up which told me the previous owner had problems with this or didn't have a clue how to adjust the chain. I decided to go ahead and dismantle everything and found that the hub itself would not rotate relative to the caliper bracket and no matter how hard you wrench on the adjuster, that bracket is held in place nicely and has that torque arm attached to it. Once I removed the torque arm, when I rotated the hub, the bracket went with it and it wasn't free at all. Once the clip was removed, everything spun freely. Took everything apart and cleaned up everything and have some parts on order. Decided to look into ordering a new hub as the adjuster part of it is pretty nicked up and I don't want to have problems again getting good grip with the adjuster tool. Just thought I would post this experience. I'm accepting of any guidance as well even if it would have saved me from this endeavor! I thought later I should have soaked everything with a penetrant but oh well.
Loosening the pinch bolt and rotating adjuster back and forth should be routine maintenance at least every 6 months. WD-40 or similar is a definite aid to keep things moving.
Once the soft aluminum teeth of the adjuster get bent over and mashed by a mechanically eager but inept PO, its F*ked. The teeth mash sideways against the swingarm, causing increased drag to the point it wont rotate, even if you have the right tool. Only thing to do is release the eccentric carrier by removing the big RH snapring, and carefully file back square all the damaged teeth. On one of my VFR's the PO whacked away at it with a hammer and screwdriver soo badly it ate a 1/4" groove in the swingarm, destroyed the heads of the sprocket bolts, and sheared off one of the eccentric carrier teeth completely. Moron.
