I have been driving a long time and I have experienced something that I previously had never seen or heard of. In the past year, I have had three tire valve failures on my 54 Chevy. It has American Racing Torq Thrust Wheels in 17 X 7 size and all of the tires were remounted a little over a year ago by Merchant's Tire, a local chain. This past weekend, I had a flat just short of Nashville and ripped my RR tire to shreds before I realized what had happened and could get stopped. That one cost me $200. On the way home, the RF tire went down quickly but I got stopped before it ran flat. Last summer, I had one other do the same thing. The tire valves are the standard pull through rubber valves and are about 1" sticking out. The valves tear at the surface of the wheel........and when they tear the damned tire goes flat in a hurry. I know that centrifugal force is pushing down on that tire valve but I've never had this problem before and, yes, I was driving 75mph most of the way. Has anyone else had this problem? I've ordered some short valve stems from Summit. I am not driving this sucker another mile without changing out all of the valve stems.
hate to say it but a lot of tire stores use cheap over the pond type valve stems , have them put the good high presure type in that have the brass shank all thru the rubber or go to the crome bolt thru stye, it sucks , hopefully you didnt toast your wheel also
Well, the hole is drilled really close to a bend in the rim and I don't know if the bolt on type will fit. I ordered a set of each to try.
If you can't use the bolt on style, use the ones 32-3 window mentioned. The ones that are made for higher pressures are metal all the way through. Much better than the ones that cost 23 cents Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
Yes! Had that happen to me on the way to Viva a few months ago, on the trailer tire. Also when I worked at Costco Tire Shop many moons ago, we had installed a bad lot of valve stems. They all had the same failure, which was splitting at the base of the stem where it seals to the rim. We had people coming in left and right for three months every day with leaking stems. Our fix was to install the "high pressure" stems, the ones with the brass stem that 32-3 WINDOW mentioned. Or use the all metal ones. It sucks because the air leaks out FAST. Before you know it, you gotta run flat!
I've dealt with many a rim where the valve didn't just fit nice and easy. There are valves that are low profile on the sides (instead of the nut being on top, there are two on the bottom.) If that still hits the side of the rim, you can usually grind off just enough to finagle it in there.
I owned a wheel & tire shop for many years and noticed that todays rubber stems are poorly made as stated before but what ive noticed is that sometimes when you pull a valve stem through the edges of the hole are a little sharp and slightly tear the valve stem causing them to eventually leak I got used to de-burring the hole in the wheel before installing the stem and have never had problems since you can use sand paper or larger drill bit ect... and lube the stem before intallation. hope this helps!!
Here's some good information on valve stems and what to look for. They talk about avoiding the cheap offshore brands that do not meet DOT standards.
Thanks for all the info. I have two different sets ordered from Summit. Hopefully, one set will work.
Installed short, bolt -on stems this morning. If I break another valve stem, I'm going to pitch the wheels. There were no burrs or sharp edges on the wheels. They were just shitty quality valve stems, IMO.
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