OT - VERY slow small tire leak

Was that fresh slime that didn't work or 4 plus year old stuff that quit working.

I'm not trying to be a jerk, just wonder about the stuff when it gets old. I helped a neighbor put some in a tire years ago. It wasn't all that bad to cleanup fresh from the bottle...

The tires leaked for several years. I don't remember how long I put up with them between squirting in the Slime and deciding to buy the smaller Harbor Freight tire changer, maybe a few months to a year. I had about a dozen small tires that slowly leaked, and left a small compressor in the shed to reinflate them as necessary.

Once I had the changer I stopped trying to seal them and just installed tubes, the careful way I learned in the Army motor pool.

Nope. I pulled it apart thinking that and found nothing. I tossed the inflated tube in the tank and stuck a bowl over it. No bubbles BUT you could see a few areas over the surface develop a skin of air. After 2 days the bowl had a bunch of air in it. It acted like the tube was made from soaker hose !

Ouch, but if it ends the problem for good, I guess it's worth it.

They are. I have wounds all over me every time I go anywhere near 'em. And they grow like bamboo here, an inch an hour, I swear...

A product called "Leak-Tec" is *MAGIC*!!! You can get it at a welding supply.It's one of those few products that are a lifetime find.

Is there a magic spray-on "Leak-Fix" for bad welds?

--jsw

On 05/16/2016 10:07 PM, Steve W. wrote: ...

It took at least three tries to get a brand new small tire tube that wasn't defective from a local dealer--they'd bought a bunch of cheap Chinese crap that had those kinds of defects either in the tube itself or the stem wasn't sealed at the junction or the like...were giving them away until they were gone; just had to keep trying 'til found one that would hold air...like I think somebody else mentioned, I bought a couple of the HF mounted tires as were cheaper than just a "name brand" tube and moved the tubes to the target...they've held so far (couple months).

I wonder if Slime would fix a porous inner tube if you coated the inside by rolling up the tube before reinstalling the valve stem, then inflated it outside the tire to stretch open the holes and bubble-test it.

A long-lasting bubble-blowing soap is Dawn or Joy plus glycerin or corn syrup.

--jsw

Hey, I could use some of that myself.

...

I've had no success with it on anything I've ever tried...perhaps it's the execution on my part but it's useless endeavor afaict.

I'd think it likely that for the ones like these that were so full of defects that they would just continue to fail with time so frequently not worth the effort.

While the HF are also (I presume) Chinese, apparently they have enough buying power to at least get something functional originally. There one also has the bin full to pick from and they've been there inflated for a while so one can avoid the initial leakers pretty easily...

corn syrup? I will have to try that.

Dan

Some of the kiddies' bubble-soap works, too...

It's often used for finding leaks in welding gas stuff.

Did the tubes get hot ? Maybe some free carbon turned into CO2 and left tiny holes. Tires are full of carbon (makes the blond rubber black) and now the man made neoprene uses it to be black as well. Might be a poor version of material that wasn't 'cooked' hot enough or long enough.

I had some tires that went brittle at the flex area. The ply was almost a zero.

Mart> Jim Wilk>>>> >>>>

Don't know. They didn't appear to be brittle or rough.

The outside tire was brittle. Often the tubes leak. I have 4 tires on an old mower that didn't hold up the winter. Likely compression and and slow leak in the rim bead area and once broken, there they went. Now bent and doesn't rebound if weight is lifted. Rats. Tubes now or trash.

Mart> Mart>> Did the tubes get hot ? Maybe some free carbon turned