Maintenance tricks

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by Ausmick

Little trick I witnessed. We were trying everything we knew to get a Toyota tyre to ‘pop’ onto the rim (tubeless).

..He walked over to a petrol can and tipped a portion into a tin. He walked to the tyre and threw it in then lit his smoke and threw the match into the tyre. (We ran as we thought he had cracked in the heat.) Within a flash the tyre was ‘popped’ onto the rim with a few pound pressure to boot!

The petrol can weaken and destroy the rubber of the tyre. A much better and safer way is to use a quick spray of Aerostart and cigarette lighter. I've used this method on an aired down 4wd tyre that had come off the bead and have it on video somewhere. If you have a diesel vehicle and don't carry Aerostart, some other aerosols will work including Brake Kleen or even some hairsprays and deodorants.

[cantankrs]

Hi,

Watching that Top Gear episode where they drove to the North Pole and they had a tyre collapse running it into a chunk of ice (amongst other damage) so for the tyre it looked to be a quick squirt of that yellow bottled liquid fire lighting stuff around the rim and cautiously tossed in a match (what if it was blowing?) and Whooff! But me, I think I'd wait for a real emergency to try it.

Regards

Alex

[cantankrs]

Aerostart will start a diesel too. But if you need Aerostart for any motor then you've probably figured it's got some problems.

Starting any diesel in the cold can be aided significantly if you can get some heat into the air intake. My Dad uses his little propane torch on the tractor and his lighting plant on cold mornings. Just loosen and lift off the aircleaner and aim it across the top until she's just running. Refit the aircleaner (well).

I've read that for troubleshooting leanness in petrol carby/efi motors you can use the propane torch (UNLIT of course) to direct some gas into the carby or throttle body while the motor is running to temporarily enrich the mixture. At least your hand is a little further out of the way... by that rationale then I guess propane could be used to assist starting a stubborn petrol motor. And if you're apt to reach for an empty tin can to tickle your petrol motor into runing then think again and reach for a plastic softdrink bottle and use it instead - smaller mouth so less chance of spilling the contents (on yourself) should you get a surprise.

Play Safe!

Regards

Alex

[barriefield-brian]

Tried the tire trick with the starting ether fluid. Its exciting but it does work, had 2 tires I could not get up on the bead. Brian

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by cantankrs

Watching that Top Gear episode where they drove to the North Pole and they had a tyre collapse running it into a chunk of ice (amongst other damage) so for the tyre it looked to be a quick squirt of that yellow bottled liquid fire lighting stuff around the rim and cautiously tossed in a match (what if it was blowing?) and Whooff! But me, I think I'd wait for a real emergency to try it.

Ah yes, I remember that! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2HXHFhhHlM (ff to the end)

Seeing this again, I recall they showed it before in one of their shows many years ago when they were driving across gletsjers in Iceland.

H.

[wayne c. petrie]

Wish I had known that fan belt trick when I owned a '59 VW years back.
With a tire that does not want to bead up, I usually tie a rope around the OD of the tire and use a large screwdriver to twist the rope tight. The tire starts to bead up and then I remove the rope and continue to fill the tire with air .
I believe the rope setup is called a "Spanish Windlass".
I used the same setup to install a piece of machinery at work last week, while my co-workers went for a com-a-long.I had the piece in place and bolted up before they returned.
It's quick and easy to use.