[skant153]

I always find it hard to find all the information I'm looking for in one place when working on something so I thought I'd write everything down here for anyone working on them in the future.

The drive sprocket cover has a single bolt on the rear of the cover, hex key, and then the whole cover slides to the rear to come off.

Stock sprockets are 17/42. People have modded to 18/39 for lower rpm. I've even seen a post about 19 fitting but cannot confirm.
Standard chain length is 112 links.
Sockets needed: 27, 19, 17, 14, 12 and I used an adjustable wrench for the rear axle nut since my pipes were in the way for a socket.

Rear axle has a pin that must be removed prior to removing the nut and don't forget to flatten the locking washer on the front sprocket nut.

If someone has torque specs, I'll add them to this post.
Let me know if I forgot anything.

 

[JoyRide]

Vulcan 800 torque specifications:

Driven sprocket-to-wheel coupling nuts 74 Nm (59 ft-lbs)
Engine sprocket nut 125 Nm (94 ft-lbs)
Rear Axle nut 98 Nm ( 72 ft-lbs)

from the Haynes service and repair manual. Highly recommended! The only flaw these manuals have, is that they lack the description of said tools above.

There are currently 3 different different versions of the manual for the VN800, but the respective torque specs are mentioned for various versions in every version of the manual. https://haynes.com/en-gb/motorcycle-manuals/kawasaki

 

[JoyRide]

On this guys site, I read 114 chain links as standard. And only 112 if you would modify to 17/38 ...

 

[marcelm]

I always find it hard to find all the information I'm looking for in one place when working on something so I thought I'd write everything down here for anyone working on them in the future.

The drive sprocket cover has a single bolt on the rear of the cover, hex key, and then the whole cover slides to the rear to come off.

Stock sprockets are 17/42. People have modded to 18/39 for lower rpm. I've even seen a post about 19 fitting but cannot confirm.
Standard chain length is 112 links.
Sockets needed: 27, 19, 17, 14, 12 and I used an adjustable wrench for the rear axle nut since my pipes were in the way for a socket.

Rear axle has a pin that must be removed prior to removing the nut and don't forget to flatten the locking washer on the front sprocket nut.

If someone has torque specs, I'll add them to this post.
Let me know if I forgot anything.

My VN800A is from 1995. The stock sprockets combination was 16/46. Now I have 18/42.

 

[btom]

NEVER ever use an adjustable wrench on ANY nuts on your bike