Tire change/balance tools

[dannymax]

Got sick of paying the LBS to screw up my tires, so..............

Bearings are: #6303-2RS premium grade 17 x 47mm ball bearings
Bought on eBay from bobhill5
Total w/shipping $13.80

Bearings slide over front axle and sit in little grooves in wood stand, and work very well. There was too much drag in bearings inside wheel.

Tire breakdown 'stand' (?) is just an old galvanized garbage can with garden hose cable tied to top & bottom rims. Sole purpose, so dannymax doesn't have to bend over. I don't expect to replace the Coates 5744 with this! :biglaugh:

Tire irons and valve core tool come from Motion Pro: one set of (2) 11" bars, (2) 16" curved bars, and a valve core remover tool. Total $53.89

Bead breaker is not yet made but will be a simple lever bolted to garage wall stud.

Waiting for my stick-on wheel weights and will take pics of stuff in action.

 

[82ndCowboy]

How are you supposed to balance the wheel like that?

 

[dannymax]

How are you supposed to balance the wheel like that?

Simple, just rotate the wheel...the heavy spot falls to the bottom. Compensate with stick-on wheel weights......it's balanced!

danny

 

[Storloc]

This actually works well as long as you have low drag bearings. Some bearings are too stiff to get an accurate fall of the heavy area. Someone on here found some and puts them on the ends of the shaft that sits on the notched blocks and says they work well.

 

[dannymax]

This actually works well as long as you have low drag bearings. Some bearings are too stiff to get an accurate fall of the heavy area. Someone on here found some and puts them on the ends of the shaft that sits on the notched blocks and says they work well.

That's the way this is set up, maybe it doesn't show well in pics.

The bearings inside the wheel were too stiff but the ones from ebay work very well. 6 or 8 trial spins and the wheel stopped within 1" of the same spot every time.

It will probably take a little practice getting the proper weights on but 'back in the day' we used to wrap small pieces of solder around the spokes :biglaugh: yeah, yeah! Probably modify that a little, use gunpowder scales to obtain weight, then apply correct stick on weights.

This whole process is still quicker than screwing around with the LBS....and much, nuch cheaper!! :clapping: