Amazon: New (to me) 1963 Volvo 122

[Othen]

Originally Posted by packers1712

Alan,

You certainly can cut them down we do it regularly at work sometimes its quite tricky calculating how much to trim off, I guess the easiest way is to thread the switch into the helicoil and mark it assuming the thread doesn't protrude below the casing its to be mounted in!

Good luck!

Doug.

Many thanks Doug, that is exactly what I needed to know.

Alan

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Othen

... The tyres cost me £130/set delivered, similar ones from F1 would have been about £260 fitted; the tyre changer was £58 and the balancer £79 - so the new tools have almost paid for themselves already - I'm just £7 down, throw in a few valves and weights and I'm only a tenner in the red. The good bit is I can fit more tyres at minimal cost, like this set of 205/55R16 winter tyres I bought for only £110/set to replace the Skoda's winter boots:

:-)

Alan

Carrying on from my tyre changer/wheel balancer post...

Today was a second wasted day waiting for Amazon (the Prime sort, not the Volvo) to deliver a new cell phone. I waited in all day yesterday (it has to be signed for) but I'm pretty sure it was pilfered. Amazon says it is still on its way today, but I think the only place it is on its way to is being sold in the pub. Ho hum, anyway, I thought I might as well do something useful, so I have changed the Skoda's winter tyres for new ones.

I bought the old (Yokahama) winter tyres with a set of steel wheels for just £50, I only really wanted the steel wheels but the tyres were okay and I have got two winters use out of them. They are 10 years old now, two have been repaired and they are starting to crack a little - time to change them thought I (but I certainly got my money's worth out of them!).

This set of tyres took me less than half as long to change as did the ones on GAM. Partly this was due to the 6.5J wheels being much easier to work with than the skinny rims on GAM, but mostly it was down to me mastering taking off and fitting tyres.



The tyre changer really does make things easy. The old tyres were off in perhaps half an hour, then I gave the outside of the rims of lick of black Hamerite paint (brushed) and left them to dry on Dan's trampoline whilst Bob and I went for a walk.

The new winter tyres were easy: new valves, tyres fitted and inflated took perhaps 15 minutes each. The tyre balancer only takes a few minutes per wheel once it is set up:



I perhaps missed a trick in that I put half the weights on the outside of the rim and half on the inside - as I had to with GAM's small wheels. On the much wider 6.5J wheels there would have been plenty of room to put them all in the middle, out of sight.



I'm really happy with the outcome: the new tyres for the Skoda were only £110/set, and they are proper directional winter tyres. That is about the same as I pay to have one of the Skoda's Continental summer tyres supplied and fitted. Apart from about a fiver for some valves and weights that was the entire cost of a new set of winter tyres. I reckon my tyre changing machine and balancer have paid for themselves already.

:-)

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Othen

PS. A small issue I have is the spare wheel still has a 165/80 tyre. It would be fine as a get you home repair, although the steering might be a bit wayward with a 1" larger tyre in one corner!

One issue with the 175 section tyres is that they are just (by millimetres) too wide for the spare wheel well. As a compromise I've bought a 165/60 tyre (same brand and type as the 175 section tyres) for the spare. It will end up being a 'space saver' but only 6mm less radius than the others, so almost indistinguishable I think.

:-)

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Excellent investment Alan!

..Besides being better looking, the stick on balance weights can be fitted on the inside of the wheel close to the centre line to balance the whole wheel without introducing dynamic balance problems so that the static balancer (aka "Bullseye" balancer) is all you'll ever need.

You'll notice on new tyres, they usually have a red spot on the sidewall and often a yellow one as well. If only the red spot is there, position it opposite the valve when fitting the tyre. If the yellow spot is there, experiment with either the red spot diametrically opposite the valve or the yellow spot adjacent to the valve, one or other positions will give the closest to natural balance with a minimum amount of weight needed to correct it.

Originally Posted by Othen

Carrying on from my tyre changer/wheel balancer post...

... I perhaps missed a trick in that I put half the weights on the outside of the rim and half on the inside - as I had to with GAM's small wheels. On the much wider 6.5J wheels there would have been plenty of room to put them all in the middle, out of sight.

:-)

I thought someone had mentioned the point about putting the weights in the middle of the wheel Dave - in an idle moment I checked back to find it was you. Thank you for that, it was good advice.

The Skoda's winter wheels were still off the car (of course they are, it is May!) so I removed and re-fitted the weights I'd put around the edges of the rims to the middle on the back of the wheel. That is a much more sensible solution: everything is much better protected and the wheel trims fit much better. Many thanks.

Re: the red dot/yellow dot piece. The red dot is the highest point of the tyre and should go adjacent to the valve, that is the most important factor. The yellow dot is the lightest part of the tyre and so should also be next to the valve, but that is less important if it doesn't coincide with the red one (I didn't know this until I looked it up a week or so ago).

:-)

Alan

[142 Guy]

Originally Posted by Othen

Re: the red dot/yellow dot piece. The red dot is the highest point of the tyre and should go adjacent to the valve, that is the most important factor. The yellow dot is the lightest part of the tyre and so should also be next to the valve, but that is less important if it doesn't coincide with the red one (I didn't know this until I looked it up a week or so ago).

:-)

Alan

Maybe! On the internet you can find the answer you want, which is not always the complete answer.

The confusion relates to the function of the red dot. As you note, the red dot corresponds to the point of max radial run out on the tire. Rims will typically have a dimple or paint dot or sticker indicating the low point in the rims radial run out. You match the red dot to the dimple to minimize the total radial run out of the wheel.

If you have the rim dimple, matching the red dot to the dimple takes precedence to minimize run out because you can fix weight unbalance with weights. There are no easy add-ons that can fix run out. If you lack the dimple or appropriate rim marks indicating minimum run out, then you match the yellow dot to the valve stem to minimize weight unbalance because that is the only option left to you. All yellow dot matching does is minimize the amount of weight to be added to achieve balance I have not seen a tire manufacturer web site that says to align the red dot to the valve stem if you lake the rim marks although I have seen 'internet references' that recommend that.

If you have access to a machine that does road force balancing you can minimize the total run out of the wheel in the absence of a rim marking. In such case neither the red or yellow dot may be anywhere close to the valve stem. You will know whether your wheels have been road force balanced because it will definitely have an effect on the installation cost.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by 142 Guy

The confusion relates to the function of the red dot. As you note, the red dot corresponds to the point of max radial run out on the tire. Rims will typically have a dimple or paint dot or sticker indicating the low point in the rims radial run out. You match the red dot to the dimple to minimize the total radial run out of the wheel.

Most erudite - thank you.

I don't think there is any chance whatsoever of finding a dimple or paint dot or sticker indicating the low point on my (perhaps) 20 year old Audi A6 steel rims, much less so any of my 50-60 year old Volvo Amazon steel rims!

:-)

Alan

[Laird Scooby]

Here you are Alan if you fancy upgrading to a bells'n'whistles wheel balancer :

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165484318553

Apparently was working before he moved units, needs a plug to enable testing, could be a quid well spent!

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Here you are Alan if you fancy upgrading to a bells'n'whistles wheel balancer :

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165484318553

Apparently was working before he moved units, needs a plug to enable testing, could be a quid well spent!

Wow, how cool is that! If it wasn't for the 300 mile trip to collect I'd buy it :-)

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

Wow, how cool is that! If it wasn't for the 300 mile trip to collect I'd buy it :-)

They do offer carriage for £60 Alan, i doubt you could do a 300 mile round trip on that amount of fuel with the current prices!

If i had the room, i'd be tempted but i don't.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

They do offer carriage for £60 Alan, i doubt you could do a 300 mile round trip on that amount of fuel with the current prices!

If i had the room, i'd be tempted but i don't.

Like you Dave, I'm tempted, but I know it would make no sense.

A 300 mile round trip with the Skoda towing my 3/4t trailer (so 60MPH maximum) would use 6 gallons of diesel at £8/gallon is £48 and take a day of my time. That much wouldn't be too bad I suppose, and if it was only a 100 mile round trip I might have done it.

There would be a bit of risk when I got it back here: it might not work and be expensive to fix, it might need calibration and so on. I suppose I could find somewhere to set it up, perhaps in the motorbike shed (currently full of pushbikes, larger tools and Volvo spares). The real demerit is: how often would I use it - maybe something like 4 wheels in the average year? I could hardly justify all that effort, even though it would be an incredibly cool machine to own.

I'll keep an eye on the auction - it ends at 10:42 tomorrow - so I'll try to stop myself buying it (even if it is still for a pound at the end!).

:-)