Got wheels assembled - safety question

[Stakebed]

Hello all, been a long haul of tryignt to get these wheels assembled. Had paint issues with the rims/lockrings and had to restart on both via sandblasting. also had a hell of a time tryign to get the valvestems to bend - accidently broke one off... finally found a method to put an S bend in the valvetem and all is well!

Anyways thats out of the way - no issues assembling. I have a mix of HAYES and firestone lockrings. The last one isn't seated as nice as the other 3 and the only other lockring I have is not round as I found out...more of an oval. How do you straighten these springy things? i got the 4 bent back straight by kinda bending and bouncing on them and that worked but this one is bent all weird. it lays flat and the ends meet but apparently is egg shaped when put on a rim.




firestone - i followed the assembly directions and tamped the ring down - its fully seated but ended up with this gap which appears normal


HAYES - fully seated and not quite touching.



other questionable HAYES - as you can see the last little bits arent fully seated due to being bent. Is this a safety concern? any way to straighten? i tried a 3 lb sledge and a steel bar to try to bend it in more but thats a far as it wants to go. it is fully seated the rest of the rim.

tires only have less than 5 lbs of air in them so dont worry.

[emf]

I don't know enough about the safety issues, you might want to consult a tire shop in your area. As far as the bent stem issue, I had Universal Tire in Lancaster bend my valve stems before they shipped them to me. I sent them a small sketch to show how much bend and where the bends needed to be and they bent them at no charge. I have been dealing exclusively with Universal for over 30 years and will not buy tires from anyone else. Give them a call...

Frank

[Hayslip]

I suggest the AA1015B wheel of 2/1929-12/1929 has straight valve stems. The bent ones were for the the 1930- for the Budd style wheel. Check with Neil for conformation on this. The image in the 1929 show room album shows straight stems with the long stem cover.

[Neil Wilson]

I suggest the AA1015B wheel of 2/1929-12/1929 has straight valve stems. The bent ones were for the the 1930- for the Budd style wheel. Check with Neil for conformation on this. The image in the 1929 show room album shows straight stems with the long stem cover.

Per the current and upcoming new RGJS, 1928 and 1929 AA wheels used straight tire valve hardware. The wheels have round openings for the stems (not designed for double bent stems). The attached shows the Schrader and Dill hardware. To use this hardware (if you have it), a tube with a rubber stem must be ordered and then the stem must be cut off to allow installation. For 1928/1929 wheels, I suggest simply using straight rubber stems over using any type of bent stem if non-original is being used. But, for judging purposes, rubber stems do not cut the mustard.

Original Schrader dust covers and rim nut bushings are not hard to find. Original stems are very hard to find.

Coker offers a stem of the correct thread which they will install on their tubes. The stems are 3-1/2" long rather than the original 2-1/2" length. This stem with original dust cover and rim nut bushing would look original until the dust cover was removed. Coker also sell a dust cover which looks original from the catalog picture. It is bright nickle (should be dull) and probably does not have original engravings. This setup would be close to original.

[Stakebed]

yea I know the straight valve stems would be correct but I bought all 5 of these for $50 brand new. says made in USA from some place in arkansas. Could'nt let that deal pass up so long story short I found a way to bend them and they fit great now.

My concern is the lockring in the last picture. I managed to find another potentially useful lockring in my stash that may fit better but need to get creative with bending it back straight - OR find a way to bend the one you see so it fits snugger. How do you guys bend these straight again?

[Farrell In Vancouver]

I think you have enough of the lock ring engaged to be fine. Bending these hoops is not an easy thing to do but can be done. I had one that got bent while removing it and I managed to correct it cold using the rear bumper of a pick up and a 36" pipe wrench. I used the hitch ball and bumper to hold the ring still and the pipe wrench to re-arc the ring. Glad I didn't have to do all of them after that wrestle.

[Stakebed]

yea im not 100% satisfied how it sits so im going to try to straighten one of my crooked egg shapped ones. Ive thought about lowering the hitch on it to see if it would straighten out. The tire shop said they will inspect them prior to inflation in the cage and if they dont feel comfortable doing it they wont. They also said they would only inflate to 50 lbs or so - is that OK?

[Bob C]

Page 410 of the Service Bulletins shows 45lb for front and rear 6.00x20 tires.

Bob

[KimVanOrder]

On my 28 I have the tires inflated to the same as a car. I don't plan on having a ton and a half load ever again. Unless the grand kids get really fat.

[Stakebed]

well that sounds better @ 45lbs.

FYI using a block of wood on the ground, lockring, the split will fit inside a standard 2" trailer tongue ball socket. balance all that then jump on the tongue a few times. great "de-egging" tool haha