How can I make a swinging rope?

Question

Base question: How can I make a swinging rope in box2d?

Context: The idea is to have a rope where the player can grab it, swing a little bit to get more "momentum" and reach the next platform. Like in the Mario games for Nintendo DS and Wii.

What I did: I constructed a chain like rope with a series of RevoluteJoint. This is the fixture of the different links:

fixtureDef.shape = robeLinkShape;
fixtureDef.density = 1.0f;
fixtureDef.friction = 0.0f;
fixtureDef.restitution = 0.0f;
fixtureDef.filter.categoryBits = Box2DConst.BIT_ROPE;
fixtureDef.filter.maskBits = Box2DConst.BIT_PLAYER;

BodyDef bodyDef = new BodyDef();
bodyDef.angularDamping = 1.0f;
bodyDef.linearDamping = 1.0f;

I've implemented a ContactListener which creates a RevoluteJoint to connect the body and on of the links of the body. Now the problem I face is this: The rope does not swing, if I apply a linearImpulse to the player (attached to the rope) e.g. to the left, it goes to the left but it doesn't swing back. If the player isn't attached the rope swings.

Last points:

• I made the player a dynamic body with a density of 1. Is it better, if the player body does not have a density set?
• If the chain is to "light" (lower density) the player can torn it apart if he is attached to the rope. If I connect the last link with the first link of the chain with a RopeJoint the last and the first link stay at the same distance but for some reason, the links between still get torn apart. Question is, should I make my rope only of RopeJoins?

I know there are some tutorials out there with some instructions but some of them use a special class which is not available to me and other simply construct a rope and use a MouseJoint. Again in this scenario my rope thing looks good the problem that when the player body is attached to it it behaves a little bit strange. I know there are also similar posts to mine but since I have some sort of a working solution there solution (if the have any) was not helpful.

Update

If I create the rope solely from RopeJoints I get a nice swinging rope. It behaves exaclty as I woulrd expect. If I then a RevoluteJoint with a density (my player body fixture also has a density) the rope does no longer swing.