Inner tubes - a long and tortured story....

Hi Lowell,

I'm not really wanting to replace my wheels if I can help it. They've worked for the last 50 years, so it must be (1) doable, and (2) somewhat acceptable.

I'm really looking for history on this thing.....

josef

I have talked to the kind folks at Parker-Hannifin (who now own the Cleveland brand) and they don't know of such a mod. However, they can tell me that the 40-16 (called out in the type certificate) was substituted in 1989 for the 40-86.

Sadly, they're current document shows that the Alon uses a 40-97A and they don't know when that swap was made.

Of course, since I have (I'm presuming) workable wheels (they've been on the plane for 50 years) I'm not inclined to spend ~$1k per side to swap them out.

josef

I have a 1966 Alon A2. Great plane. Love it.

It came to me with original equipment Cleveland 27-100D (40-16) wheels. It's got a 6.00x6 tire on it on the mains and a tube that matches (straight stem).

Well, my tire went flat and I believe it's the inner tube that had some damage to the valve stem when it was recently aired up.

As you may/may not know, the original equipment wheels are for TUBELESS tires (with a needle valve for inflation - think soccer ball). As has been pointed out to me, there are few tubeless tires in GA.

Worse, somewhere in this plane's history (though not documented int he log book) someone drilled holes in the outer half of the wheel assembly to accommodate a straight stem inner tube. Interesting, but flawed.

The original wheels have a flange built up around the bearing that allows a small hubcap to be mounted to the outside of the wheel to protect the bearing. That hubcap has a tapped hole for attaching an aluminum cover plate to the wheel. That's how mine is - but it has this hole for the inner tube.

Turns out the valve stem runs right up to the flange and to get air into it, one must pull on the valve stem when attaching an air chuck to it.

You guessed it - that can damage the valve stem rubber leading to a slow leak and flat tire.

So, I'm looking for anyone who knows of that particular modification, when and or how it was documented and how I can work with an inner tube so as to not damage the valve stem when inflating.

I'm a bit lost and puzzled. (And, have a flat that I can't make work...)

Anyone know of the history of this?

josef
512.773.8818 (call if you don't want to go on record in the forums )