I am going to replace the chain. I use cheap chains and they only last 500 miles or so. I don't understand how some people get 3000 miles out of a chain.

The bikes shifts ok as far as I can tell I have a downtube friction shifter for the front and it does have a triple front deraileur.

Even if my chain line is off by 3 mm, it would seem that I could cross chain by 12 mm or more and get away with it. But this is not the case for my setup. Also it seems that once the bike is shifted that the type deraileur would be a non issue as far as the chain staying on the chain ring. For proper operation the deraileur should not be touching the chain after the shift has been made.

Thanks for the suggestions. Getting bikes to work well can be interesting.