Willys Jeep; tube change...

 

The day after the big drive up the hills a couple of weeks ago i noticed a slow puncture and a nail in a tyre, curses!...

Until I could get a another inner tube through the post I swapped the spare over and left the nail in place and would just reinflate it before each drive so I still had a spare to use. It seemed putting some Stans Sealant as used on my Fatbikes paid off as while it had leaked through the tyre and valve being a non tubeless (tubed) set up on the wheels it probably stopped the tyre deflating completely and I having to do a roadside wheel swap so result!.

Swapping over the wheels was a quick affair with the £20 scissor jack and wheel nut cross brace in a bag under the passenger seat where it is held secure but 2 canvas belts in the loops used to secure the roof canvas when it is not in use (I leave my canvas attached at the rear and rolled up when not in use)

Wheel blocks in before jacking and with the wheels nuts loosened I soon had the wheel off...

When I first got the jeep I realised and put the cross brace in the Jeep as the spare wheel nuts are a different size to the wheel nuts which is a bit daft...

Copper grease on wheel hub nut threads before fitting makes life easier...

Tightened up I was soon ready to go...

A few days later a new tube arrived in the post from Dallas Autos, along with some new valve treatment for use with E5 and E10 fuel, I need to do further investigation if I can safely use E10 with this in my Jeep. This now I am using Super Unleaded E5 which while the Jeep runs better than previous Supermarket E5 Premium when it was available it is the most expensive fuel to buy!,

Check the size of the tube!, left to right are the following; 

regular 26" MTB tube.  26 x 2.5 DH tube - used before on 4" Fatbikes, regular 4' Fatbike tube, and the Willys 6 - 16" tube...

Off with he spare wheel and removed the nail and deflated the remaining air to then break the bead - this can be hard esp on motorcycles I have done but it was easy and using a spade it only needed one thump and it was off the rim on both sides...

I soon had one side off and pulled out the punctured tube and wiping around the rim as it was a bit of a back mess, probably years off rubber and water ingress soon had the new tube partly inflated and inserted, clamping molegrips on the valve prevented the valve slipping inside while I put the tyre back on using some tyre soap - branded that but looked like washing up liquid to me! (eBay purchase)

The last bit was tight and I used a thinner motorcycle tyre lever then finished using my feet to pop it on and job done...

Aired up to 30psi and soon had it back on the back of the Jeep, the tube I inflated and washed and marked the picture, it will get a 2" motorcycle patch and kept as a spare....

Those Italian tyre levers like the car levers I have had for years and did many tyre changes with these on Enduro Motorbikes, there a bit rusty so sat them in a tray with Vapo-rust as I am cleaning up an old adjustable spanner I found to bring it back to life - more on some old tools again soon on the blog...

The Hotchkiss rims on my  M201 Jeep are non tubeless one piece rims, as are the early post WW2 Civilian Jeeps (CJ`s), 

However Wartime Jeeps had split rims - referred to as `Combat Rims` which by removing 8 outer nuts around the outside of the wheel nuts, the rim split in halve allowing you to change the tyre/repair or replace a punctured tube, clever and easy to do for the average Soldier...

Here via the excellent Team G503 are videos on how they did it with split rims...

And reassemble...

More soon...