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roscoe

roscoe

Jedi Knight
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I had a tire experience today. I have finally gotten adept enough at removing and installing tires on my wheels so that, if I need to, I can do it with the original itty bitty Dunlop tire irons. That doesn't mean I like it, or that it is in any way "fun". So I decided to go to a USA Tire shop in town where they had some Kuhmo 165s in stock and have my front tires replaced. $68 each, how can you go wrong? I told them what type of car it was and that spin balancing was not necessary (I've talked about this before). So after a 35 minute drive I'm standing next to the car explaining to the manager how you can use the knock off tool and hammer I brought to get the wheels off. Hmmmm, says the manager. "We can't do that". Seems they are not allowed to touch wheels that don't have lug nuts because they don't know how to torque them and weren't willing to trust me to tighten them in their shop. They could put the tires on the wheels alright, but they couldn't take the wheels off or put them back on. I suggested that I could do that and he nodded OK, but insisted I not do it in their parking area. I drove to the other side of the parking island, removed one wheel at a time and reinstalled them myself. Done, just not quite what I expected. So, if you didn't already know, be sure and explain you have a lbc with knock off wheel hubs. Are we having fun yet?
 
I hear ya,
I have experienced similar issues at our discount tire store around here.
It may be time to shop the local guy down the street.
They have been real accommodating to our cars in these parts..
 
Albuquerque Tire is the only place I go to. Their prices are competitve and mostly I just trust them.
 
I just had four new Vredesteins put on and no, they were not $68 each. But the people had no problem taken them off the wheels and putting on the new (along with the new tubes, of course).

The fun for me, in my case, was that I couldn't just bring the car to them for I still had my radiator out along with my fan blades and rubber heater pipe (replaced). I was able to bring to the tire place two wheels at a time. First the front since the car was already jacked up. Then, when the radiator was put back in and filled, I was able to turn the car around and jack it up for a second go.

So yes, I had my own kind of fun.

Now I should get a wheel alignment. Can anyone do that or should I go back to the people who seem to know about wheels?
 
Baba',
I'm quite in agreement about local shops. I try to do that if I can, but none of them had 165X80R15 tires and I have a thing (among many)that I like to use stuff that is in soeone's normal inventory, without special order. One point I don't think I made obvious in my post is the sadness I always have when liability is cited as the reason someone can no longer perform what have been long standing procedures that don't fit the mold of what has become normal. I also tried to weasel out of paying the fee for "lifetime spin-balancing" because if they can't pull the wheels off then how would they do that? No dice. They had to charge that, it was part of their "tire installation" fee. So it goes.
 
Wait until you have a shop refuse to sell you tyres for you car...because they don't know the speed rating required for that there high-performance sports car.
Last time, I took in my research data for the Jag (original tyre size, and every change in size due to numbering system changes over the years), AND the manual...to show, brand new, top speed was 96.
 
It seems people in this country are so dumbed down these days.... they can't do anything! like a bunch of robots.... I had the same experance at a glass shop.....Oh too much trouble those old british sports cars.... not worth it,, bla bla bla No wonder i do everything myself! I wouldnt trust anyone else!
 
Regarding wheel alignment: the only thing you can do is set the toe. I would not trust a modern tire shop with this. I made a toe gauge from a design by steveg. Use the forum search for one of my early posts or steveg's posts to find it. Toe should be set at 0 to 1/8th inch in after rolling the car forward if it has been jacked up or last rolled backwards. Rolling forward sets the suspension correctly for measurement of toe. To change the toe, you use a wrench on each of the nuts that lock the tie rod. Pull up on both sides to loosen since they are opposite threaded. You then turn the rod one way or the other to change the tow.

New tires will not change the toe setting, so if you had even wear before you probably don't need to check or change it.
 
Jon;
I agree, having them in stock makes sense.
It is too bad that we can not use common sense and trust, we just default to
the possibility of being taken to court, so "no" is the all to common answer.
We'll just plug along......
 
I bought my last set of tires from Costco, who, of course, wouldn't touch the wheels. Fortunately, we have a local, excellent, wire wheel shop who mounted them.
 
roscoe said:
Hmmmm, says the manager. "We can't do that". Seems they are not allowed to touch wheels that don't have lug nuts because they don't know how to torque them...
Click to expand...
That's funny cuz tire shops I've been to don't know how to torque lug nuts. Just use the impact wrench 'til it stops spinning. One place actually streched the bolt so much, it changed the thread pitch. When I confronted the manager with the problem and a thread gauge, he refused to believe there was such a thing as bolt stretch and I must have stripped the nut when removing it. He did finally replace the stud and nut though to his credit.
 
I would do the alignment myself and double check it a few days later, just in case. And if you are fitting radials and not bias-ply tires the toe in should be reduced by half: zero to 1/16" toe in.
No reason not to have a professional do it, just that only the toe can be set and may not be worth the cost of having a pro put all the gauges on all four wheels unless you want to know if the rear axle isn't tracking true. However, this could tell you a lot about the car, including if the axle is bent or the frame is crooked.

Any shop worth allowing to work on your wire wheels will also be concerned about lug nut torque and speed rating. If they don't, they don't know what they're doing - complain LOUDLY and take your business elswhere!

That said, they cannot have the experience to know all the cars that we have here and what is a proper fitment. There was a time (early '80s) when the XJ6 could only be fitted with the OEM Pirelli for size, load rating and speed rating. No manufacturer in the world made another tire to fit. TOC with the Mk. II probably just got the same word because they didn't know the difference in Jag models.

I once "opened up" the Mk III one night and after passing 5000 rpm in 4th OD and still accelerating, I decided it was good enough, backed off and went home. Later figured out that was at least 115 mph and the old tires were only S-rated tires - 112 mph! Lucky they held together! Got smart and bought H-rated tires soon after.

Just too bad that in this country we are always looking over our back in fear of the lawyers who dictate what we should do despite good sence and responsibility.

C Ya,
Mark
 
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