Demounting a tire

[Will]

It took me over an hour and a half to demount one freaking tire today. Its been on the car for close to 15 years and to make matters worse back when I put that tire and tube together back 15 years ago I used a flap. What PI freaking TA. Me and flaps are officially done, Never ever again. I had to run the tire over with my car just to break the bead and then it only came apart an inch at a time. That thing was cemented in. I would had never been able to do that on the road. I wonder if there is some kind of anti seize a person could coat the bead with to make the job a little easier next time I need to do this, I'm not getting any younger! I'm a little afraid what the fronts are going to be.

[Jerry VanOoteghem]

Will,

I'm not understanding how a flap made this worse.

[Humblej]

Baby powder inside the tire and bead, on the tube, and both sides of the flap, should lube and keep components from bonding together.

[Jugster]

I've heard of petrified tires that were so difficult to dismount, some owners actually resorted to power-tools (specifically, the Sawzall—and no, I'm not kidding). But really, it's not necessary to deploy such weapons of mass destruction. I myself have had to peel off a tenacious set of old Wards Riversides and yes, they were hard as oak, but Archimedes knew a thing or two about leverage and screws, and the principle works beautifully in the form of two or three large C-clamps. Now, I don't care how stiff and old the tires are, for none are tough enough to withstand the irresistible mechanical advantage of a big set of large, heavy-duty C-clamps. They're geared down low enough that you'll only get a 16th of an inch of movement per half-twist, but brother, their mechanical advantage is irresistible. The bead WILL break.

Flaps are great if you have the patience and room in the tire to accommodate them. When mounting a set of 30x3 Firestone NON-SKIDs, I made an attempt at squeezing a flap in there, but came to the conclusion that there just wasn't sufficient space in the tire. Didn't matter, 'cause as it turned out, all four of my tires ran just fine without flaps until they wore out. Some guys swear by flaps and insist they're necessary, others insist they're not. I'm sort of in the middle ground where that's concerned. If you can manage to wrestle flaps into your tires and get the whole shebang mounted that way—great. If not... well, Ford never bothered with flaps, so it's been demonstrated and proven that you don't really need them.

[Norman Kling]

I do use flaps. Some old tires are hard to remove whether or not they have flaps. If the tires still hold air, you might running the pressure low and drive slowly for a short distance. If you can get one tire iron in, move over a bit to one side and work in another iron. Then use a third iron and work in either side of the other two. Then take out the one in middle and work it away from one of the others until you get at least half the tire off. Sometimes it works best to remove both sides together on one side of the rim with the tube in between in that case start opposite the valve and do the valve last. I haven't used the c clamp method, but it appears to be a good one. Work it around to break the bead loose first then it should be easier to apply the irons. If your rims are demountable, it is easier to work on the ground. Only ones which the flaps are very useful are those with split rims so the tube doesn't get pinched in the split or damaged by the keeper.
Norm

[signsup]

Harbor freight sells a manual bead braker that we have actually used to mount and dismount tires. Haven't used it on a wooden wheel, but the bead breaker part of it is just a lever with a rounded blade that you lock the wheel on the ground and press the lever down and it breaks the bead. Keep moving the wheel around until all the bead is broke.
We have had to soak some beads in Liquid Wrench for a day or so and that can help.

But, we have also used the Sawsall, drill, jib saw, circular saw, propane torch, angle grinder, dremel tool, tire irons, crow bars, etc.

[Erik Johnson]

In my opinion, it's easier to break the bead and remove and install clincher tires with the wheel on the car than wrestling with it on the ground or on a bench.

I'm thin and not particularly strong but I've done it the Royce Peterson way twice and it was fairly easy. Once removal is started, you can peel the tire off rim with your hands. You use the weight of the car to hold the tire against the driveway and push it up against the rim while you are pulling it off and when rei-nstalling.

When I reinstalled the tires, I didn't use any tire irons at all.

I don't use any bead lube. Just a little dusting of tire talc on the tube.

If you have demountable rims, do it with the rim on a front wheel - much more fender clearance than the rear wheels.

http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/17 ... 1319847992

[Allan]

A fellow I was helping with his T restoration found a set of rims with hard old tyres. He cut them off with a saw. He also cut a set of four as new Olympic butyl rubber tubes, the ones that hold air!
That taught me a valuable lesson. When I bought two rock hard old stock Good Year tyres, tubes and rims at a swap meet, I fought those tyres off with levers, clamps, mallets and a vice, saving two beautiful thick red rubber, metal valve stemmed, Goodyear tubes that were like brand new. They are still in use n one of my T's, but I can't remember which one! Those tyres still had the blue and yellow Goodyear flag brand on the side. They were almost certainly bought as spare rims, tyres and tubes and never used. Being loose lug rims, it would date them as pre 1925 purchases.
I always use the tyre fitting lube my tyre dealer uses. It makes fitting as easier. It helps the tyre slide smoothly on the rubber rim liner and into the rim bead. It stays where you put it when applying it. It makes dismounting the tyre easier too.

Allan from down under.

[Steve Jelf]

If the rim has gotten wet enough for the tire to be rusted to it, removing the tire gets harder.

[TRDxB2]

It took me over an hour and a half to demount one freaking tire today. Its been on the car for close to 15 years and to make matters worse back when I put that tire and tube together back 15 years ago I used a flap. What PI freaking TA. Me and flaps are officially done, Never ever again. I had to run the tire over with my car just to break the bead and then it only came apart an inch at a time. That thing was cemented in. I would had never been able to do that on the road. I wonder if there is some kind of anti seize a person could coat the bead with to make the job a little easier next time I need to do this, I'm not getting any younger! I'm a little afraid what the fronts are going to be.

Too much anti-seize and the only thing keeping the tire from spinning on the rim is the valve stem.
Some suggest putting the tire in the sun to heat it up and make it more flexible.
Best tool to remove a rock hard tire is a grinder with a meta cut off wheel. Wear a quality mask, face shield & shop apron. The residue is plentiful & harmful

[Will]

I looked up when I bought those tires. Turns out they are 21 years old. The tires are just starting to weather a little not past to the point where they are deemed unsable. The main problem was not so much with tires but more with the person. 21 years ago my hands were not full of arthritis and they had more holding power. So the tube that was stuck to the flap just multiplied problem. There was no problem here in sunny Florida finding enough sun to warm up the tires. There were a couple of times I had to go back inside to cool off in the air-conditioning. I coated the rims with Ospho and will let them sit for a couple days before painting and putting in the new tubes. I never had much faith in Ospho but over the years it has proven to be a big help in rust control. Today I will static balance the front tires on the car. Well, That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

[Rich P. Bingham]

I looked up when I bought those tires. Turns out they are 21 years old . . .

The average driver puts something like 20,000+ miles per year on the family car. Even with exceptional mileage, tires are seldom over 3 or 4 years old when changed. Our Ts are another story. For very active drivers, it often takes a decade or more to wear out a set of tires. For reasons beyond my ken, some tires age into rock-hardness before they’re worn out. There are likely a number of factors causing this change.

The tires on my Lizzie were probably around 15 when I decided a new set was in order. They were so hard and brittle they defied my attempts to dismount them. I had to have help. Running fresh, new tires, I was astonished how greatly the ride improved with new, supple tires !

[Will]

Rich, I agree with you. I think I'm going to start saving for a new set. Might take a while as I noticed that even a cheap tire from Coker is around $189.00 each and of course they are on back order.!!! These were Firestones and I think at the time I paid around $150.00 each for them. But that said I'm told all Model T tires are made in the same place somewhere in Vietnam so I assume they are all made using the same basic ingredients just different molds. I see now the same tires I paid $150.00 for 21 years ago are now $283.00. When I ETS from the Army back in the early 80's I took a job at a plastic cutlery plant. I always found it amusing. My job was to keep the mixer full that fed all molds full at all times. They had one product that was called blue diamond, It had its own hopper, It used all the same ingredients as all the other hoppers other than the blue crystals that added the color. They were sold for more than double the price as the normal cutlery was just because it was blue. I never felt down deep inside of me that was the right thing to do so I left that company and started to sleep better at night knowing that I wasn't screwing some person into thinking they were getting a better product just because it was blue. I got a feeling the same thing is happing in Vietnam.