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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Punctures With Wires

Over the past 2 to 3 hundred miles I have had two punctures, and I am pretty sure it is down to there being no protection over the spokes on the inside of the wire wheels protecting the tubes.

The first one I just put down to bad luck and got the local garage to swap inner tubes for a tenner saving the hassle of trying to swap tyres myself so never noticed the state of the inner wheels.

But on checking the inner side of the wheel after the second puncture I have only just seen there is no protection.

I have searched the usual sites but cannot see any purpose made protection to cover the spokes, is there such a thing available?
Tim Lynam

Tim,

I asked a similar question a few years ago, and I think the answer was to wrap the spoke ends with several rounds of vinyl tape. I used a heave grey tape, but it was not the grey duct tape. What I used had no cloth. Haven't had a problem, but it has only been 8 or 9 thousand miles.

Charley
C R Huff

Cheers Charley, sounds like a good way round the problem.
Tim Lynam

Tim. The wheels originally had a black, rubber band over the internal ends of the spokes. They were still available as of a few years ago. Duct tape, applied over the internal ends of the spokes makes an effective field expedient.

Les
Les Bengtson

Tim: try Ebay, you can buy it there, normally motorcycle dealers.

I have wires and have had several punctures. The first was sorted by my local garage and I had no feed back so with the second one I removed the tyre and did find rimtape. My puncture was in the outer edge so "conventional" puncture. Struggled for ages to get it all back with a new inner-tube.
G Williams (Graeme)

Moss sell the bands. I have also used insulation tape when I didnt have a spare band and that is still OK after 3 years (also a lot cheaper than the correct item).

Trev
T Mason

Eventually found them on Moss, but they want £9.95 for each band and around £28 for an inner tube, I can see why most go for the insulation tape!!
Tim Lynam

I payed about £6 +postage for an inner tube on Ebay. Company called ppe-2008.

Used them several times as I carry a spare.
G Williams (Graeme)

That's spare inner tube (as well as spare wheel) but lets not go THERE!
G Williams (Graeme)

You could call in to your local tyre dealer & ask if they have any old truck/similar inner tubes they are chucking on the scrap & cut bands out of that to stretch over rim!
p kiely

PK just beat me to it, when I ran wires on my classic trials car I just made my own out of old inner tubes.
David Smith

Interesting idea making them out of old inner tubes, as for £6 each Graeme thats more reasonable, thanks for the info as down to the last one.

Out of interest can others manage to change the tubes on wire wheels, I tried last time, struggled and gave up.
Tim Lynam

I got the old inner tube out but could not get the new one to stay in place and lever the tyre back. The valve kept pulling out of the hole in the rim and the force needed to get the tyre back (despite trying to push it into the well in the rim) was such that I thought I was going to damage the rim. I took all the bits to a local tyre place!
G Williams (Graeme)

Tim & Graeme,

I've done it, but I don't enjoy it. I just didn't really trust a modern tire shop to deal with a tube and wires without screwing one of them up.

If you have the multi-purpose tire core/stem tool that looks like a cross, you screw that onto the inner tube stem to keep the tube from falling back into the wheel. You could also use the tool that is used to put stems into a tubeless wheel.

If it took that much force to get the tire back on, it sounds like you didn't have the tire bead in the correct place.

The hard part is not getting the tube pinched under the tire bead, or getting it pinched under the pry bar.

Charley
C R Huff

Tubes and rimbands are available from MWS

http://shop.mwsint.com/productslist.asp?catid=146&pagenum=1

http://shop.mwsint.com/productslist.asp?catid=135&pagenum=1
Dave O'Neill2

I agree with Charley, getting them back on requires less effort than removing them if everthing is in the correct place. It also helps to keep the tube in place if you inflate it a little after you insert it (also makes it less likely to pinch it as well).

Trev
T Mason

Forgot to mention its worth checking with small independant tyre dealers for tubes. I bought one a couple of years back from a dealer a couple of miles up the road from me for I think around the same price as Graeme and no p&p to pay.

Trev
T Mason

This thread was discussed between 08/04/2013 and 09/04/2013

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