Tour bike drive train problem
 

Bike: 1984 Trek 520, just rebuilt with my hardrocks drive train, sram x-4 derailer, mountain triple up front (but no front derailer), 8 speed chain, quill stem friction shifter, I have not transferred my cassete yet, and have been running it on a 5 speed free wheel (untill i get my next paycheck), it shifts bad/can't find the sweet spot/buzz's. Is this because the 5 speed free wheel is different then the 8 speed cassete (that was part of my hard rock)********************????

Also: I possible could afford to take a link or so out of my chain, but ill ask for LBS for their opinion on that, and I need to learn more about fine tuning my derailer!

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/inde...ageID=10497224

thats the bike

if you can't dial in a sweet spot, then maybe you have serious chainline issues. i can't thing of a reason why you can't adjust your friction shifting to get in a sweet spot. perhaps you need to adjust your b-screw?
http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=64

also, maybe your derailleur hanger is bent?

I doubt it will help with your problem but you should shorten your cable housing a tad.

Did you reset the limit screws on the rear derailler when you swapped it over? They would need adjusting regardless of whether or not you were still using an 8 speed cassette.

From what I can see from your picture, you have the outer chainring mounted on the bike. You have it mounted, apparently, on the outside of the crank. This pushes the chainline towards the outside of where it should be. The proper chainline is measured to the middle of the crank. For triples that is the center chainring. You need to determine the chainline you need (look here) and adjust accordingly. You'll probably need a new bottom bracket or, at the very least, you'll need to mount the chainring on the inside of the crank.