The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts 4.5 hours later

I took down 6-20"x 7.00" widow makers this Saturday with a tire iron, a ball joint pickle fork, and a small sledge hammer. Man thats work, :hammering: but I have been bound and determined to do this myself. Plus I saved $180.00 doing it. The 1936 wheels are differant than any thing I've heard you guys talking about. There's no indicater as to where you start and once I figured it out it went somewhat better. The one piece ring has a tapered relief on oppisite sides, and after you locate it stick the pickle fork in and hammer down. The ring begins to come out and with the help of good ole WD-40 you work it out about a fifth of the way around. Then hammer the ring toward the center of the wheel and out she comes. Take out the inner tube and liner, turn the wheel over and pound off the old tire. I did this on a 12" Douglas Fir stump, worked pretty good.

Well it sounds like you were lucky that the innerliner wasn't rusted to the rim or else you'd probably still be working on it

Thats for sure. There was some pretty stinky old rubber in there, you know the old red 3/16th thick real rubber. Every tube had at least 2 patches and one had 7 can't imagine taking down those wheels every time I got a flat.

I got 6 700x18's that need changing if you got your wind back yet!!

Believe me 55 Burb, I'm trying to quit.

Clutcheadstew, I've been there, those wheels are a bear, I don't know how many years they used those but my '33 had them I changed them to the split ring type.

If it has a ring, it's not technically a "widow-maker" but dangerous none-the-less. Are you going to sandblast and paint the wheels ? If not, clean them very well before reinstalling the tire and ring. I know what you mean about being labor intensive, I used to mount tires for the school buses at our local garage when working through high school. One bus a day was more than enough for even a teenager, LOL,
Scott

one thing i find helps is to let the air out and drive the wheel about 10 or 20 ft. This help break the bead loose most of the time amd make it easier to get the tires off. This works on get the rims off the hubs also, loosen the nuts out 1/2" and drive it a little. Just use common sence and you wont have any problems.

I'm getting the wheels and rings media blasted later this month. I'll paint them to a point, I can tell the re-assembly will screw up the paint.I've got all the brakes done and putting the new tires and painted wheels back on will be cause for a celebration. Can't wait to see it on the ground again, It's been awhile. Then to tackle the cab.....another long story...but so worth it. Thanks guys for your comments and support. Oh and 49BigTrucks, I can think of a couple of other names for those rims if widow maker dosen't apply