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I borrow these words from a childhood friend that posted them on facebook. He changed out the cabin air filter in his newer vehicle and it was a great accomplishment for him. I laughed out loud but did not comment on it, he could run circles around me on a computer, political science, and business. So I did something that was a fairly great accomplishment for me. After all the years hearing about the dangers of split rims and lock rings, since I was a kid, I decided to at least dismantle my rims for blasting and painting. I read as much as I could on the power wagon sites and watched a few videos on you tube and read my September 1996 issue of PWA to get started.
Dismantling tires dated 1958 was tough but eventually came off. I somewhat cheated at this part by using a press I built a few years ago that is wide enough to accept the 9x16's. Also one rim I bought was bare and another the tire sidewall basically fell apart so the bead was cut with a sawzall fairly easily. Sandblasting and cleaning was the normal power wagon stuff, followed by a rust proofing then paint. I purchased NOS lock rings at VPW which turned out to be a good move since the old ones were pitted and dinged up from tire shops over the years. I tried calling a mobile tire guy that I have used before but could not get ahold of him. At about 62, he may have retired from the tire business. I thought I might try to do it myself because I had the PWA tire manual written by Gordon Maney who idealized the way things were done, how things were made, back when these trucks were new. As a power wagon owner this is something I should know how to do and be respectful of.
Following the PWA, I installed my tubes and flaps and it went well. I put the tire on saw horses so I was not all bent over and did all the tires, making sure the valve stem is pointing in the direction I want. The manual talked about putting the tire over the rim or having the tire upright and feeding the rim in sideways. I deviated from this by having the tire on the saw horse and dropping the rim in it after lining up the valve stem. Seemed to work well using gravity with the heavy rim. I turned the assembly over so the rim is resting on the saw horse and now could put the lock ring on. The first one I had real problems trying to get the new lock ring started. I tried working the ring around the rim but it kept popping off. I'm not sure if this was because it was a new ring or just my inexperience. I didn't want to bend up my new rings and was starting to scratch up all my new paint. I deviated from the manual again and used an old strut spring compressor to hold my lock ring. I put a shop rag on the rim and hooked the center hole then put the other hook end on the ring at the start of the split. I used a dead blow hammer to smack the ring and it went right around the rim. By the last rim it would take about 5 hits to get the ring on. These new rings were tight also, no little gaps here and there like I read about. I think the widest gap was about 3/8". Now comes the exciting part, the unknown.
I read about the clip on air chuck, putting log chains through the rim holes to hold the ring, and paying attention to what is going on. The tires were put out in the back yard away from everything and I propped the first one on another so if somehow it came apart it would go away from everything. I took one of my air chucks with the built in gauge and put a female hose coupler on instead of the air chuck. On my locking air chuck I put a male coupler, then a 50' length of air hose could be used between the two for a safe airing up novice distance. The setup worked pretty well and I would sneak up and check things out every 10 psi or so, like checking out a wild animal that may not be dead yet. I would toss my dead blow hammer at it before checking tire pressure making sure it would not bite me. There was a 5 psi discrepancy between my tire gauge and the one built in the chuck, maybe it was the extra length of hose. All the tires were done and really it was uneventful but I know the first time chains are not used is when the unthinkable will happen. I am happy the gap on the rings closed up tight, a couple only had maybe 1/16" gap when aired up. The power king tires were aired up to 40 psi and look great. I have done quite a few things people I know would not even attempt but I felt a great accomplishment by changing tires on rims with split lock rings by myself. My man card moment.
Dismantling tires dated 1958 was tough but eventually came off. I somewhat cheated at this part by using a press I built a few years ago that is wide enough to accept the 9x16's. Also one rim I bought was bare and another the tire sidewall basically fell apart so the bead was cut with a sawzall fairly easily. Sandblasting and cleaning was the normal power wagon stuff, followed by a rust proofing then paint. I purchased NOS lock rings at VPW which turned out to be a good move since the old ones were pitted and dinged up from tire shops over the years. I tried calling a mobile tire guy that I have used before but could not get ahold of him. At about 62, he may have retired from the tire business. I thought I might try to do it myself because I had the PWA tire manual written by Gordon Maney who idealized the way things were done, how things were made, back when these trucks were new. As a power wagon owner this is something I should know how to do and be respectful of.
Following the PWA, I installed my tubes and flaps and it went well. I put the tire on saw horses so I was not all bent over and did all the tires, making sure the valve stem is pointing in the direction I want. The manual talked about putting the tire over the rim or having the tire upright and feeding the rim in sideways. I deviated from this by having the tire on the saw horse and dropping the rim in it after lining up the valve stem. Seemed to work well using gravity with the heavy rim. I turned the assembly over so the rim is resting on the saw horse and now could put the lock ring on. The first one I had real problems trying to get the new lock ring started. I tried working the ring around the rim but it kept popping off. I'm not sure if this was because it was a new ring or just my inexperience. I didn't want to bend up my new rings and was starting to scratch up all my new paint. I deviated from the manual again and used an old strut spring compressor to hold my lock ring. I put a shop rag on the rim and hooked the center hole then put the other hook end on the ring at the start of the split. I used a dead blow hammer to smack the ring and it went right around the rim. By the last rim it would take about 5 hits to get the ring on. These new rings were tight also, no little gaps here and there like I read about. I think the widest gap was about 3/8". Now comes the exciting part, the unknown.
I read about the clip on air chuck, putting log chains through the rim holes to hold the ring, and paying attention to what is going on. The tires were put out in the back yard away from everything and I propped the first one on another so if somehow it came apart it would go away from everything. I took one of my air chucks with the built in gauge and put a female hose coupler on instead of the air chuck. On my locking air chuck I put a male coupler, then a 50' length of air hose could be used between the two for a safe airing up novice distance. The setup worked pretty well and I would sneak up and check things out every 10 psi or so, like checking out a wild animal that may not be dead yet. I would toss my dead blow hammer at it before checking tire pressure making sure it would not bite me. There was a 5 psi discrepancy between my tire gauge and the one built in the chuck, maybe it was the extra length of hose. All the tires were done and really it was uneventful but I know the first time chains are not used is when the unthinkable will happen. I am happy the gap on the rings closed up tight, a couple only had maybe 1/16" gap when aired up. The power king tires were aired up to 40 psi and look great. I have done quite a few things people I know would not even attempt but I felt a great accomplishment by changing tires on rims with split lock rings by myself. My man card moment.
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