i have a pair of tires on the back of my car, and i noticed today that the tred/sidewall is separating from the tire. is it okay to drive on it(like to the tire store)? i commute every day to work and school on the highway. i'm guessing i'm not going to work or school untill this is fixed. or is this a commom tire issue that can be driven on?? here's some background: 56 plymouth cooker classics 195- 75 - 15 any info or suggestions are greatly apprieciated. heres a diagram of the problem area(the separation is the red part)...
Does it look like a slice or a tearing? How old are the tires? Did you buy them directly from Coker? If you bought them new recently, call Coker and ask about a possible warranty? Personally, I'd be cautious about using them and if you can see any cording for the tire, replace it. A blow out at speed is not what you want.
it looks like a clean slice, but it follows the curvature of the tire, so i figured it was one layer seperating from another layer.. i bought the tires new from cooker about 6? months ago. thanks oldcarmike
Corky Coker is a HAMBer, shoot him a PM or try to get in touch with Coker. They've had those problems in the past but they do stand behind their product so they should be able to help out. Don't drive on it. Even if it doesn't blow out, pieces of the tire could come loose and damage the car or cars around you. Mount up a spare if you have to drive the car anywhere.
Back in the 50's / 60's you were thrilled if you got more than 7k to 10k miles from a set of tires. Since these are repros of an old design this may just be par for course. Maybe someone can shed some light on if the new style reproductions are using any newer materials in the cord , rubber compounds or have made any adaption to newer design technology. Is this problem only on the outer part of the tire or does the inside have the same issue? I dont remember how forgiving the old bias ply tires were on air pressure . The failure looks to be in an area that is associated with low air pressure on later model tires. I've seen this on plenty of the new low profile tires (55/45/35 series) which dont tolerate less than 4 or 5 lbs of pressure shortage and they only need 10 or 15 miles to start to cause damage. To check if its a low pressure problem deflate the tire , break the bead and see if there is ground up rubber inside the tire. If this is a defective tire think about the rest of the set since they were probably all from the same production lot. There are federally mandated manufacturing ID numbers on all tires that should provide the this info. They are located on the sidewall of the tire at the wheel edge.
thanks guys, i will try to get ahold of cooker. i'm not driving on it right now, but its a real pain in the neck. this is my daily driver, and my rod is out of commission right now. i guess i'm looking for a new set of tires now...
I didn't know you had a '56 Plymouth. I've got a '55. I've had really poor luck with tires(NO sidewall problems though for those of you wondering about Bugmans famous home ground WWWs ). In the 6 years I've owned it, I've had one tread completely seperate, one start to seperate, one busted belt, and my front pair are continually wearing out due to unavoidable alignment issues because it sits so low. Maybe it's a Plymouth curse or something?
I just bought some Cokers and had the $10 per tire replacment deal added on. You should find your invoice, or call and find whether you have this covereage.
yeah, i'll have to look in my recipts folder... bugman- yeah, i've got a 56. mine sits low in the front, too, and i've had a hell of a time getting the alignment right... i'm thinking about watching your video a few times and giving some homemade www tires a try. or i might just order some diamondback classic extrawide whitewall tires. whatever i do i need to do it soon.. not having a car and living in the country is a bit of a problem... haha and not having any money makes it tuff too. dave
My front suspension is almost bottomed out, so the closest to zero I can get is -4* left, -5* right. I could put the spindles in a press and tweak them, but for the $10 each I pay for tires to grind wneh they wear out every 1.5 years, it's really not worth my trouble. I plan on redesigning and scratch building the whole front suspension/steering when I put my Hemi in so I don't want to put to much effort into it now. If you're not up to grinding the WWWs, Squablow's painting method also works well if you prep the tires well.
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