While touring the western States in the mid-60s, I recall watching a husky Caribbean American in heavy boots jumping on a tyre to release the bead. Must be a rare event in this century.
Been on a fairly strict diet due to arterial plaque. Got my BMI down to around 17 (which felt too low).
Around 18 now, so I'd need VERY big boots.
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Biological warfare : I have some rather old liquid laundry detergent which seems to have gone off, producing a soapy bacterial (?) slime with brown lumps in it.
Eeuw!
Been using it to clean bike chains, but it seems to work as a tyre lubricant..
bit.ly/2NVDBnO
Worked it in around the rim with a brush and some water, left it to soak for an hour or so, moved the fulcrum a bit, and it finally let go.
Struggle to get it off the rim. Probably couldn't have done it without the crowbar, though I tried everything I had.
bit.ly/37gzRF3
For the other side, I anchored the wheel by putting it back on the car (the wrong way round, for clearance) and it was fairly easy.
bit.ly/2OAt2FZ
One probably wouldn't do that iwith paintwork or a wheel finish one cared about, but I carry neither burden.
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Continuing my attempted revival of this lost (to me, anyway) art, demounting a potential replacement tyre from a rather rusty rim using hand-held levers alone (difficult last time) proved impossible.
I tried lowering the car onto the end of the lever/levers. Wouldn't budge.
The eventual fix was one of those screw-jack adjustable feet they use on scaffolding, screwed down through the middle of the wheel, to serve as a central fulcrum for a tyre iron in a tube-lever, rotated laterally.
I put another steell tube over this central post to protect the threads, but they are pretty coa*** (As opposed to fine. The Mary Whitehouse Module's anal obsession, which I CAN apparently type, is showing again) so this probably wasnt really necessary.
I put a polythene bag containing "bioslime" (all rights reserved) over the business end of the tyre lever.
The trick is to stop the whole thing rotating/flipping. Lashing to a palette was too fiddly and not stable enough, so I reverted to the gate used earlier, lashing the tyre down with a crosspiece.
Worked a treat, though the crosspiece was a bit of a nuisance
I thought I'd get the other side off (easy last time) with hand-held levers, but no, so back to the gadget.
This time I sandwiched the gate between another wheel and the potential donor wheel. This of course raised the gate off the ground, but lashing one end to a tree stopped it rotating.
(I'd think in this configuration the screw-jack might also serve as a bead breaking press but havnt tried that yet)
VERY stubborn this time. The lever tube (not as thick-walled as a scaffolding tube, which would have probably been ok) was starting to collapse when the tyre bead iet go.
Bit of a Pyrrhic victory though because the tyre bead was chewed up, probably when I was attempting to shift it with levers alone, and it probably isn't usable unless I put an inner tube in it, which I'd have to get from a dealer and might cost as much as a part-worn tyre.
Edited by edlithgow on 23/11/2019 at 04:34
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The trick is to stop the whole thing rotating/flipping. Lashing to a palette was too fiddly and not stable enough, so I reverted to the gate used earlier, lashing the tyre down with a crosspiece..
Lashing to a palette !? I think you must mean a pallet :-))
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The trick is to stop the whole thing rotating/flipping. Lashing to a palette was too fiddly and not stable enough, so I reverted to the gate used earlier, lashing the tyre down with a crosspiece..
Lashing to a palette !? I think you must mean a pallet :-))
Think I must, though I did say it was a "lost art"
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Bit of a Pyrrhic victory though because the tyre bead was chewed up,
I did wonder if that would happen, and especially as you said it was stretched on in the first place (was it or just time stuck) But I would've given up and cut it off before now not worth the time and effort to me
But then Ive never had one that didn't come off eventually :-)
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Bit of a Pyrrhic victory though because the tyre bead was chewed up,
I did wonder if that would happen, and especially as you said it was stretched on in the first place (was it or just time stuck)
No I didn't.
I'd think the rusty rim and age might have been fatal factors for this tyre.
IF I'd used the gadget straight off, I MIGHT have saved the tyre, BUT t I hadn't evolved the gadget then, and maybe the tyre wasn't worth saving.
IF it wasn't, it was an appropriately expendable test case, (and perhaps worst case too).
It cost me a bit of time and temper but I learned something that might be useful, so I'm mildly pleased.
Come to think on't I've never had one that didn't come off eventually either, though I havn't tried it many times.
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No joy refitting that tyre. I tried a couple of G-clamps on the rim to keep one side down, and when it became obvious I wasn't getting it back on with tyre levers alone, I tried a jack tensioning a rope around the tyre on the opposite side.
This, along with hammering hardwood down on the bead, (lubricated with sunflower oil), got me a bit closer to on, but not close enough. Can't think of any clever tricks likely to get there.
That tyre is very stiff. I'll try the bulged one, which isn't, later. If I can't get that back on either its probably just my poor technique.
looks like I'll have to break down and pay someone.
THE HORROR
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No joy refitting that tyre. I tried a couple of G-clamps on the rim to keep one side down, and when it became obvious I wasn't getting it back on with tyre levers alone, I tried a jack tensioning a rope around the tyre on the opposite side.
This, along with hammering hardwood down on the bead, (lubricated with sunflower oil), got me a bit closer to on, but not close enough. Can't think of any clever tricks likely to get there.
That tyre is very stiff. I'll try the bulged one, which isn't, later. If I can't get that back on either its probably just my poor technique.
looks like I'll have to break down and pay someone.
THE HORROR
If the bead is at the bottom of the wheel well and it still wont stretch over the rim they must have used a proper tyre machine to do it, even at the risk of breaking the bead though usually the rubber strips instead rendering the tyre useless so its risky either way
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No joy refitting that tyre. I tried a couple of G-clamps on the rim to keep one side down, and when it became obvious I wasn't getting it back on with tyre levers alone, I tried a jack tensioning a rope around the tyre on the opposite side.
This, along with hammering hardwood down on the bead, (lubricated with sunflower oil), got me a bit closer to on, but not close enough. Can't think of any clever tricks likely to get there.
That tyre is very stiff. I'll try the bulged one, which isn't, later. If I can't get that back on either its probably just my poor technique.
looks like I'll have to break down and pay someone.
THE HORROR
If the bead is at the bottom of the wheel well and it still wont stretch over the rim they must have used a proper tyre machine to do it, even at the risk of breaking the bead though usually the rubber strips instead rendering the tyre useless so its risky either way
Thanks. Think this tyre has had it anyway, since I damaged the bead trying to get it off with levers alone, before I thought of THE GADGET (scaffolding screw-jack footing).,
Its old and stiff, so I'm really just using it to develop a method rather than destroy a good tyre guddling about.. IF it'd gone on OK I might have used it to go through inspection, now due again, but I'd still have had to buy a better one
Punk-technology update:Current implementation of THE GADGET uses a standard scaffolding foot-board (dunno what the official name for those is) with the screw-jack going through it at one end, then through an old wheel (for height) then finally through the wheel being worked on.
The screw-jack holds everything together pretty firmly, you can stand on the footboard for added stability, and I'm currently using it to anchor a jack used as a puller (a ratched strap would probably work for this but mine are all lost or broken).
Seems to work quite well, and could probably be enhanced with the addition of a bead-breaker fairly easily.
These scaffolding bits are AFAIK, fairly standardised components that are widely available.
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No joy refitting that tyre. I tried a couple of G-clamps on the rim to keep one side down, and when it became obvious I wasn't getting it back on with tyre levers alone, I tried a jack tensioning a rope around the tyre on the opposite side.
This, along with hammering hardwood down on the bead, (lubricated with sunflower oil), got me a bit closer to on, but not close enough. Can't think of any clever tricks likely to get there.
That tyre is very stiff. I'll try the bulged one, which isn't, later. If I can't get that back on either its probably just my poor technique.
looks like I'll have to break down and pay someone.
THE HORROR
If the bead is at the bottom of the wheel well and it still wont stretch over the rim they must have used a proper tyre machine to do it, even at the risk of breaking the bead though usually the rubber strips instead rendering the tyre useless so its risky either way
I got the bulged-but-not-so-stiff tyre back on, though it was a bit of a struggle and I did take a couple of chunks out of the bead by over-levering.
The old screw jack from my last car (Ford Sierra) failed, so i used a ratchet strap. For the first bead I put a polythene sheet over the wheel, which seemed to help. Didn't do that for the second bead because I thought it would get stuck inside the tyre, but I probably should have.
Now just have to get it seated. Tried the strap tightened around the circumference and the "explosive" method, with butane, WD40, and carb cleaner. These all produced quite a bit of flame but no explosions.
Gunpowder?
All this hassle is a bit puzzling. I can remember sometime in the 80's putting a couple of remoulds on the front of my Renault 5 in the street, armed only with a couple of tyre irons, in an hour or two.
This time around its taken days, I've had to invent new technologies, and I STILL can't do it. I don't remember any trouble getting them seated either, though I MIGHT have used inner tubes, which I did sometimes in those days.
Maybe tyres were softer in those days (like policement were older), but the internyet is awash with videos of people gently massaging them on with thier knees.
Knees my a***. I'd have to be some kind of bionic transformer.
It could be partly a Taiwan thing, since I'll bet no one is DIY fitting car tyres in Taiwan (farmers MIGHT do truck and tractors sometimes) and the rubber probably hardens quicker in this climate.
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