Removing CMP tires from rusted &*^%%* rims..

[Jacques Reed]

Just a word of caution:

I still remember my high school metal shop teacher cautioning us not to ever strike two hammers faces together.

Apparently because the faces are case hardened, chips from the hard surface can break off and fly out if struck together with disastrous results to eyes.

Perhaps the tyre hammer face isn't case hardened but I would still suggest wearing goggles when striking it with a sledge just in case.

Cheers,

[Ian McColl]

Hello Jaques,

Thank you for the advice; however, safety always comes first. Safety glasses or even a face shield is used for this activity. The head of the tire hammer does suffer from hitting it with the sledge and starts to collapse over time. I have purchased extra hammers at automotive flea markets for this reason. I should have mentioned in my earlier post that you don't have to strike the hammer with full force. Slow and steady is the secret to this activity.

[rob love]

I was gong to say the same thing about the hammer with a hammer. It won't just be your eyes at risk. A guy at work took a chip into the neck.

I swear by the tire hammer when all else fails. When I was a young Craftsman, we had a tractor trailer come into the shop from Petawawa with two flat tires. I had never seen so much rust in my life. We removed the tires, and tried to disassemble them with the Coats 5000 HIT tire machine, which is normally capable of taking apart anything. No dice, we had that machine almost to the point of bending into two.

The contracts guy ran them downtown, and the good old tire hammer and wedges came out. He said the little guys had them apart in about 5 minutes each.

[Ian McColl]

Personally I have never found the need to use any wedges when removing a tire from a CMP wheel. Once the tire starts to separate from the wheel it does not want to go back in.

I prefer removing these wheels and tires in the colder weather for two reasons:

A) You work up a fair sweat doing it.

B) You can wear heavier / full length clothing to protect your entire body in the event that a piece does break off the hammer.

I also split field stone on occasion and every once in a while a piece comes off the stone that sounds like a 0.22 firing off.

Long story short - you have to use caution and common sense when performing any activity to ensure your own safety and the safety of those around you.

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Ian,

I like your idea of using a tyre hammer to remove stubborn tyres especially as even new tyres on clean rims can present a problem in removing them.

It got me thinking (dangerous in it's own right!). Perhaps using a large copper hammer would be good to use as it would reduce the chance of chipping the face of the tyre hammer and prevent damage to it.
There is still is a small possibility of steel on steel contact if there is a miss hit with the steel collar on the copper hammer so goggles etc still are a good idea.

I find my 2.5 Kg copper hammer a very valuable tool in the restoration kit. Prevents putting flat spots on steel parts where they need a bit of "persuasion". Ideal for whacking sides of tie rod ends and anywhere there are tapered pins to remove them.

Cheers,

[Bob Carriere]

Now have some pictures that illustrates the damaged induced by too much torque on stubborn CMP tires.

The "clsw" on the tool that actually assist in sitting/wedging the foot of the tool between the tire and the rim is the main part that has failed. The claw looks like the curved section from a 5/16 thick steel pipe....about 1.3 the circumference and has a small section of tubeing welded and pinned in pplace to pivot.

Earlier pictures of the tool only shows the plain curved section later model, such as ours, has had a small lenght of 1/4x1/4 steel added to the side of the claw for stiffness.....but not stiff enough as ourts bent just where the reinforcement ends.

Since the main body of th tool has not shown any trauma we plan to have a NEW claw cutout of 1 1/4 thick T1 steel plate with a thicker profile/

JUst as an aside we have used the tool with the existing twist and bent to derim a modern 900x16 tire off a modern rims and it still works fine........ but will need rebuild to work on tough cmp rims. We have kept the bad rim so we can continue the process with the beefed up tool at a later date.

Here are pictures....

[Bob Carriere]

The same pictures will be sent to the manufacturer to see what they offer as a solution.

CONCLUSION....... The tool was never used with a air impact wrench but nonetheless it has its limitation and can be overworked using a 16" hand ratchet. Once the resistance of the tire bead on the rim gets too high the holding claw which should insure that the foot inserted under the rim starts twisting this imparts the same twsiting motion to the tower of the tool..... the more it twist the more the foot slips out and the more the claw bends.
I am confident that a claw made of solid steel with a greater cross section will be more resistant to the twisting action.
Bottom line ..... on some really badly rusted rim/tire it maybe wiser to resort to the various proven "cutting methods" used by members OR spend the big bucks for the professional hydraulic models or visit your local truck centre and pay the man.

Meanwhile we are going to rebuild our model to be more resistant to our heavy handed approach and keep the worst tires for the chainsaw and chisel.

The Barn Boys