Well I tried to put my tires on this set of magnesium American Racing 4 hole wheels I have and the valve stem hole is in the curved part of of the casting. See the pcitures. One side of the hole is 3/4" deep while the shallow side is like 3/8" deep. The tire store said they couldn't get a normal valve to go in and a mag valve wouldn't work. They suggested a tube but didn't have any. I really don't want to add the weight of a tube to the already grossly heavy Hurst cheater slicks. What do you guys think I can do? Pictures to come - I have to try a different operation
I know that when I went to take these Ansen's in to be mounted they did not have a step long enough to make it through such a thick surface. They made a call to NAPA and got one there that looked pretty Hoss in less then an hour. It had brass backing plate on it and a chrome stem but I am not sure on the make. No tube needed and worked like a charm. Did they try calling around???
no they just called me to tell me they couldn't do anything. Here is a small size picture of the hole - I can't get to my phone pictures for some reason.
You could spot face the area around the hole, but you would end up with a BIIIIG damn 1/2 moon shaped spot... Get some tubes and don't sweat the weight. The magnesium makes up for it,right???? Sorry, holmes. Bitchn' wheels though... -Abone.
The black art of Welding Magnesium?? Could you get some one to Tig a spacer on it so that the mounting surface is level and can seat a regular type stem?
Thanks - Yeah the magnesium sorta makes up for it but one tire weighs 50 lbs by itself. They are HEAVY compared to a slick. TYou are right, the tube probably won't matter. I do like the idea of spot facing the inside flat -
Maybe the reason you are running into this issue is because all early mag wheels were designed to run with tubes. Don't cut any corners and run them with what they were intended to be used with. Most farm machinery stores carry a wide selection of tube sizes. Pick up a set for around $10 and call it good. Besides, magnesium is a very porous material and the wheels will thank you for not messing with them. -Mike
Josh, if you weld it ( and thats not a big deal ) you'll be the one that ruined that set of wheels. Buy some tubes and mount them slicks up. It's not like you don't have the horse power....my $0.2 worth
make your own stem, start with a truck stem and cut it down, i'd just make on from scratch on the lathe.
If they were infact designed to work with tubes - I have no problem running tubes. If I can find a stem that would work I would do that too. Not sure if the enkies will seal on the wegde. Interesting. Yes I agree welding to the wheel would be crazy. Flat spotting or machining may be out of hand too. The tubes aren't that heavy - plus I'd never have to worry about a flat with recaps and a tube!
On any wheels without a safety seating ridge inside to catch the tire, it is a good idea to run a tube anyway. Somewhere I read a story about Jeff Beck driving the Barry Lobeck/Bruce Meyer roadster pretty hard, and rolled a tire off it's seat going into a corner. Wouldn't have happened with a tube. And, I also have heard the story of magnesium being porous and leaking a lot. But, all the magnesium wheels in my family run tubes, so we wouldn't know firsthand.
I was more worried about the weight of the tire due to forces add to the the driveline under the power. I have heavy duty Moser axles but it's only an 8". It is a light car. I really need a 9 inch or a 600 HP rated QC at some point.
I would also recommend tubes. You would be constantly filling your tires back up due to the leak down and this would keep introducing moisture on the inside of the wheel.
Its a 5/8 inch hole. Now how do I figure out a tube size? Its a hurst 10 x 31 on a wrangler radial case? Hurst says its a 30 after the recap and this is a 8.5 rim which they recomend on the phone. The 10s s they are on now spread the tire so it rides on the outside edges. Ill look at tubes on summit tomorrow. Probably not rocket science. Thanks for everyones input. Ill say since I put radials up front to match the hurst radial it handles way better. It drove all right with bias up front till you got on it then hang on. Now its cool again.
wow - crickets! I found this place for inner tubes. They have all tubes sizes it seems for decent prices. https://www.otr-offroadtire.com/ I started at Summit and the tubes were about 65 - 75 bucks each! ouch
Thats because Summit sells tubes to racers and such, tubes are basically tubes. The ones in your lawnmower/wheel barrel aren't much different than the ones for your car/truck tires. Just figure out the size you need and get them from a standard tire store, not a race store.
I called aropund to two "tire" stores and they didn't have tubes or Mess with Tubes as they put it. Anyway - I was just posting the information I found. That website had all the tubes sizes in the world and had what I needed and the tubes are on the way.
If need be, angled washers are fairly easy to make. With or without using a lathe. Hacksaw a piece of drilled to size aluminum, saw a washer off at the correct angle, clean it up with a good file.