Split rim problem

[dibarlaw]

Just took my age cracked old Dunlop 500/525-21 tires and rims up to Universal to get new tires. The rear rims were a bit out of round and at 35mph the car had a decided "Hop". Took some effort to remove them. The front rims seemed to slide off easily. I thought I would try the spare to see if it fit any better. Well, it shows about 1/2 inch out of round! No way to get it on the wheel. Good thing I did not have to change a flat! Question is, can these be trued up? The wheels I have are probably from a 1926 Standard since they are for 21". My 25 originally came with 22" rims.

[ROD W]

Larry, I saw a post about truing up out of round split rims not long back. I think it said heat was the only way. I,ve never tried.

I couldn,t get 5.00 X 22" tyres for my 25 back in 1970, so changed the wheels over to 21", from a 26 parts car I had. But then found the axles were different also ( the 26 being a larger axle) Also the ends of the axle that goes into the differential gears

(spider gears) is also different, the 25 being square and the 26 having splines. When I removed the differential gears, they were all cracked at the corners of the square. They would,t have lasted much longer. I would say, they changed to the splined axle in 26 because of the failure of these gears in the 25 model.

[Terry Wiegand]

Larry, several years ago I had a guy by the name of Jim Steck make a new rim for the spare carrier on the 1920. The old rim that was on there had a twist in it. He told me that he could true up an out-of-round rim, but, a twisted or bent rim would have to go on the scrap pile. I would think that any good sheet metal shop with a heavy roller machine should be able to help your rims. It would certainly be worth asking about.

Terry Wiegand

Doo Dah America

[Mark Shaw]

Larry,

What is the ID measurement with the ends together & latch closed?

Does the stem come through a hole in the latch or a separate hole?

Edited May 29, 2014 by Mark Shaw (see edit history)

[Guest]

With a heavy cross pein hammer and patience it is be possible to correct your rim and make it round most of the time. Where you strike the rim it tends (minutely) to become concave. Striking the rim on the side that is covered by the flap tends to decrease the diameter at that point and striking the side that fits on the felloe tends to increase the diameter at that point.

It is the same principle as re-arching a spring manually.

One needs to be careful. You don't want to stretch the rim.

[Leif Holmberg]

Larry.There can`t be very hard (not oval rim)to find a 21" rim to your wheel-wheels,1926-1928 Std models use the same 21".In my opinion there will be very hard to fix an Buick oval rim just becuse they are so hard .If you compare with for example a Chevrolet rim same year, they are much thiner and easier to fix.

Leif in Sweden.

[dibarlaw]

Sorry Mark. I had done this last night but was sidetracked and forgot to post.

Yes the photo you have is similar to mine. The I.D. should average to around 20.750? The width at the bead flange is 4". I used my inside micrometer and got 20.438 at the smallest (diametrically across from the stem) and at about 30 degrees to the left with the split being 0. It was 21.050 So almost 5/8 inch out. Last night I picked up my tires back from Universal and tried to change the wheels onto different wheels and the fits were the same. So no further damage was done in breaking down the rims.

Thanks to all:

Larry