Puncture

[Duncan Grimmond]

At a local Steam and Stuff gathering I met Austin Ruby today and I'm getting my version into print first! today I had a puncture! I was in my three-wheeler (no spare non removable wheels) on the way to a pub outside Harrogate when the steering went funny,I saw the tyre was deflating pulled over as soon as poss and climbed out. I always carry a tyre inflator but it was not there, then I remembered I'd put it in the Austin 7 for le Puy N-D and Guildtown. Still I had the squirty can and I was surprised it was still active as I bought it in 2008 when the Pembleton Brooklands was ready.
It blew up the tyre and I went on my way for 3 miles wondering how I was going to sort it but at least there was the possibiilty of assistance at the gathering. I just made it to the pub car park before it went totally flat. 
Graham said he had a 19" tube on a motorcycle wheel so up to his shed looking for the wheel (BSA C12) and tyre levers. I took the tyre off and extracted the tube and checked it for pressure. Back to the pub and I had to use his savage tyre levers with card and plastic protectors to take the tyre off the wheel, still on the car on a jack/axle stand. 
A nice tiny hole in the side but no trace of anything to cause it. I had to fully remove the tyre to find a small screwdriver which I have been looking for since I fitted the tyre in the first place. I'd used it to guide the valve stem into place and it had obviously fallen in unnoticed. STUPID BOY!

Still, the experience was useful but I did feel like the Cabaret as there were about 8 blokes sitting on chairs with pints offering helpful (?) comments and suggestions. I managed to get the tyre back on without the levers using my feet and a wooden punch rescued from the traction engine firebox. 


 

 

[Alan]

In my work I once led an investigation into tyre deflations, their cause, frequency and effective remedies. This led to things like run flat and self sealing tyres. We thought we had covered all possible causes, but we never thought of that one. Thanks.

[andrew34ruby]

Duncan, I think I put my version up first on the 'What have you done today..' thread, simply saying I'd had the pleasure of meeting you. Also a photo of my 2 Austins.

[AllAlloyCup]

Hi Duncan

Reminds me of my freshly restored Morris 8 Two Seater
and a camping expedition to the North of Scotland.

As I was much more skint then , I had not got round to buying
A new set of tyres and some were very, very old, except the Spare.
It was almost new but had a big bulge in the sidewall when inflated.

Anyway we got way north of Lochinver , but then had a
a puncture so was forced to fit the dodgy spare.

At this latitude garages were few and far between.

But there was one in Lochinver itself. Thinking they might
have an old trailer or something else with 17” x4.50 tyres
Lying about I called in. He looked at the dodgy tyre and said
“You’d better not go further north with that one”

It turned out that he had 2x new 17” Dunlop’s in his tyre loft
, how many garages have s tyre loft now?

He set to to put the two new tyres onto the punctured wheel and the dodgy one.

The sidewall bulge turned out to be our Cairn Terriers toy rubber knobbly ring
Which the pesky dog must have dropped into the tyre when he was in the garage!

We all had a good laugh. The old garage owner
Was perplexed as to what to charge me for the tyres but we settled
On the price of two mini 10” tyres.

Camping to John O’Groats was then feasible knowing we had
4 reasonable running tyres and two good spares!!

This Morris also made it to Land’s End before I swapped
It for an MG VA Folding Head Foursome (DHC) which weighed exactly
double the weight of the little Morris.

Ps My Cup is currently carrying a punctured spare which
I must fix along with a leaky petrol tank , again!, as the first repair
attempt was not quite good enough!
All the best

Bill G

[Chris KC]

I'm trying very hard to think when I last had an (A7) puncture. I think it was on the Windmill Run a good 20 or 25 years ago. On that occasion I was immediately taken in hand by a kind local chap - I think he'd been a trucker - who sat us down with a 'koffie' while he insisted on removing and repairing the tube for us on his kitchen floor. Nowadays I often leave the spare wheel at home as it's heavy and takes a lot of space out of an Ulster 'boot'; & carry a spare tube and a pair of tyre levers instead. I'll worry about air when I need it...

[Duncan Grimmond]

I agree about the weight and bulk of a spare but can't follow the logic of a spare tube and levers but no means of inflating when fitted? Even a foot pump is better than a long walk rolling a wheel.
Probably a denser population in Darkest Bedfordshire but the further north you go the greater the distances between outposts.

[Chris KC]

True Duncan, but if I only have a puncture every quarter century and by bad luck it happens to be out in the sticks somewhere, I guess I'll deal with it somehow. In my general experience a helping hand isn't usually too far away. Truth is an Ulster rep does not have the possibility of carrying gear for every foreseeable eventuality (not if you are camping anyhow). Most of my longer trips have required a certain leap of faith...

[Duncan Grimmond]

Ah, that leap of faith, I know it well!
On some of my solo trips along the D roads of France I've been struck by the impossible emptiness and offered up a wish to see someone else on the road or a farmhouse closer than a couple of kilometres off.
Miles of fields of sunflowers and a huge factory-sized silo in the distance and I haven't seen another car for 20 minutes stirs the bowels on occasion...

[Howard Wright]

Hi All

We've had two "sort of" pictures in the last two weeks.  Both in modern cars fitted with tyre pressure warning lights.  The first was in my daughters car and it proved to be a slow puncture. No spare but it held up until she got home and had it sorted.  The second I'm a bit ashamed about. We've owned a new Audi A1 for nearly two years and I don't really treat it with the same respect I treat the RK.  I hadn't checked the tyres since we bought it.  Anyway the warning light came on at about 10.30 one night miles from anywhere.  Eventually found a closed garage with an air pump that was still working.  Hmm there was only 25psi in the front tyres and 28 in the rears (should be 36 and 32 respectively).  I think the pressure must have slowly decreased as having pumped the tyres up they've stayed inflated for the last week. The bigger embarrassment was the length of time it took me to reset the warning light!  I had to resort to reading the tomb of instructions in the glove box and gradually going through a whole page of instructions, all by the light of my mobile phone.

Cheers

Howard

[Malcolm Parker]

One of the many joys of running an Austin 7 is that they are not fitted with tyre pressure warning lights!