Demounting old tires?

[John - NNY]

I have several old wheels and tires (30-31) that have seen better days/decades. I am trying to remove the tires from the wheels without success. The rubber has been on the rims for 50+ years. I am having trouble breaking the beads loose, remove the snap ring, and removing the old tires. What can I use to get the tires off the rims? Harbor Freight has a bead breaker stand (http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=92961). Would something like this work? Is this tool strong enough?

John
NNY

[Jared275]

John,
What I did on all four of my wheels is I took a pneumatic disk grinder and cut a sliver out of each tire to the bead and then broke the bead with a cold chisel. If you do this with care there should be no damage to the inside surface of the wheel. After removing the tire I took a wire wheel to the mating surface between the split ring and wheel and cleaned as much of the rust away as I could. I then sprayed penetrating oil and worked the ring loose.
Regards,
Jared (CT)

[spectria]

There is a thread on here about this subject which goes through several methods. I used the search function at the top and entered "split Rings" and got 10 posts. There are probably more.

I used a sawzall type tool to cut the tire down to the wire bead, then a mini grinder to carefully sever the wire without nicking the wheel or ring, did it right at the ring seem.

I have also removed these rock solid/petrified tires/rings by soaking the ring area with WD-40 and left to soak for days, adding more liquid to pool along the bead.

After several days I was able to use a tire hammer (tapered shape, 5lbs or so) to hammer the old tire down enough to remove the ring without damage.

I have seen the Harbor Freight product you mention, and I don't think it is strong enough to handle a petrified A-AA tire.

I have an old pneumatic tire machine/bead breaker, and it could NOT crush the petrified tires on my rims.

DO NOT USE AIR PRESSURE TO DO THE REMOVAL, except as required to blow away loose debris, and TAKE SPECIAL CAUTIONS WHEN REFILLING A SPLIT RING TIRE, NEVER ATTEMPT TO REFIL A SPLIT RING TIRE/RIM COMBO IN FREE AIR.

Always use a cage, a long air hose is never long enough!!!!

You probably already know this, but to save your life and others, I added the emphasis anyway...

Also, when I went to cleaning up my rims, I mounted them on a front hub off the ground and spun them and used a thin steel blade mini grinder to grind off the rust, carefully applying just enough pressure to allow the grinder to maintain a steady spin of the rim and maintaining accurate angles to get into every nook and cranny and my rims came out clean and smooth... the pitting left was then applied the wire wheel cone treatment on same grinder to complete the process. Wear a full resperator and face shield, these rims often had lead base paints...Do it somewhere where the dust won't contaminate your life for a hundred years.

I took my down by the local Coho Salmon spawning grounds so the rain would flush it all into the Russian River...NOT!

Took an hour a wheel/ring combo, but after that process and washing the rims with a solvent, they took primer and paint like a dream... Of course there is Media Blasting, which I highly recommend, but it is pricey...

I have done 12 wheels this way so far, and am happy with the result.

Dave in Sonoma, Past Shop owner of 30 years... Good luck with those wheels!

[miner art]

[quote="spectria"]There is a thread on here about this subject which goes through several methods. I used the search function at the top and entered "split Rings" and got 10 posts. There are probably more.

I used a sawzall type tool to cut the tire down to the wire bead, then a mini grinder to carefully sever the wire without nicking the wheel or ring, did it right at the ring seem.

I have also removed these rock solid/petrified tires/rings by soaking the ring area with WD-40 and left to soak for days, adding more liquid to pool along the bead.

After several days I was able to use a tire hammer (tapered shape, 5lbs or so) to hammer the old tire down enough to remove the ring without damage.

I have seen the Harbor Freight product you mention, and I don't think it is strong enough to handle a petrified A-AA tire.

I have an old pneumatic tire machine/bead breaker, and it could NOT crush the petrified tires on my rims.

DO NOT USE AIR PRESSURE TO DO THE REMOVAL, except as required to blow away loose debris, and TAKE SPECIAL CAUTIONS WHEN REFILLING A SPLIT RING TIRE, NEVER ATTEMPT TO REFIL A SPLIT RING TIRE/RIM COMBO IN FREE AIR.

Always use a cage, a long air hose is never long enough!!!!

You probably already know this, but to save your life and others, I added the emphasis anyway...

Also, when I went to cleaning up my rims, I mounted them on a front hub off the ground and spun them and used a thin steel blade mini grinder to grind off the rust, carefully applying just enough pressure to allow the grinder to maintain a steady spin of the rim and maintaining accurate angles to get into every nook and cranny and my rims came out clean and smooth... the pitting left was then applied the wire wheel cone treatment on same grinder to complete the process. Wear a full resperator and face shield, these rims often had lead base paints...Do it somewhere where the dust won't contaminate your life for a hundred years.

I took my down by the local Coho Salmon spawning grounds so the rain would flush it all into the Russian River...NOT!

Took an hour a wheel/ring combo, but after that process and washing the rims with a solvent, they took primer and paint like a dream... Of course there is Media Blasting, which I highly recommend, but it is pricey...

I have done 12 wheels this way so far, and am happy with the result.

Dave in Sonoma, Past Shop owner of 30 years... Good luck with those wheels![/quote
Dave the sawsall is the way to go, Then burn the old tires,you never seen such BLACK smoke,those old tires were made from real rubber!!!Did ya see the smoke,DAVE?? Just kiddin!!,take them to the recycle center!!!
ART

[spectria]

Dave the sawzall is the way to go, Then burn the old tires,you never seen such BLACK smoke,those old tires were made from real rubber!!!Did ya see the smoke,DAVE?? Just kiddin!!,take them to the recycle center!!!
ART

Yea, did ya see me sendin the signals with my Blankie???!!!

Great to burn for help signal when lost on an island in the freakin middle of knowhere!!!