How To: Change A Tire Manually With Pictures

[Gollum]

So I'd made a thread recently talking about my first experience changing tires, and as promised I had some pictures taken this next time through, so I can provide a nice write up people can use for reference. I can tend to use more words than I probably need to, so I'll do my best to let the pictures do the talking, which is why I'll be posting so many of them. I want the process to be clear and concise for everyone, that someone in my shoes with no experience can still get it done without taking all day.

 

First let's start with some of the tools you'll be wanting. This is a basic tire changing stand available from northern tool supply, harbor freight, and similar tool supply stores.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a comparison of the bead breaker attached to our tire changing stand and an antique of a bead breaker, which you can still buy variants of today.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a valve core tool, used to remove the little valve that allows you to put air into your tire.

 

 

 

 

Step 1: Remove Air

 

Easiest way is to remove the valve stem core using the tool above. It's threaded inside the valve stem, so just put the tool on and lefty-loosy righty-tighty.

 

 

 

 

Tada! This is what you should have now:

 

 

 

Step 2: Break the bead. Oh fun. This is what a bead breaker tool might look like.

 

 

 

 

Make sure to lube it up nice and good! Dish soap and water will do.

 

 

 

 

With a bead breaker like this you'll need some weight on the rim to keep it from sliding out on you. Stand on it! Apply pressure in a bouncing motion rocking the bead back and forth. This will let the lube in little by little. Have someone keep spraying it while you rock if you can.

 

 

 

 

 

Progress

 

 

 

 

The tire will snap loose when it drops into the drop center, then you can work the rest of the bead below like this.

 

 

 

Now flip it over and repeat!

 

 

 

 

 

Step 3: Tire removal. Now that you've gotten both beads broken you can mount the wheel onto the stand. You can put something between the clamp and the rim if you're worried about scratching the rim. I did no such thing and the rim was fine so proceed at your own discretion.

 

 

 

 

 

Make sure to get it nice and tight so it doesn't move!

 

 

 

 

This is the end of the tool I used to tighten the clamp and will now be sticking under the bead.

 

 

 

 

Dig in!

 

 

 

 

Now pry it over the lip. Shouldn't take much energy at all.

 

 

 

 

Now to keep the bead you've gotten over to follow your tool, stick in the end of a spoon (you can even just a screwdriver if need be). This will stop that opening from moving on you.

 

 

 

Now just use the center post as an axis to rotate your tool around the bead pulling it over the lip. MAKE SURE to keep the rest of the bead that hasn't moved over the lip down into the drop center of the rim. Otherwise you won't have any slack on the bead and won't be able to pull it over, just marring up your rim. Keep that bead in the drop center!

 

 

 

 

Once you've gotten a small bit of the bead over the lip the bead will hold itself over the rim, so you don't need the extra spoon holding the bead anymore. You can pull it out getting it out of your way.

 

 

 

 

Just keep moving around the wheel.

 

 

 

 

 

Before you know it, once you get about half way across it'll just pop over nice and easy.

 

 

 

 

Now you can get your tool under the lower bead.

 

 

 

 

And pry it over just like before.

 

 

 

 

Get your 2nd tool in to hold the opening still

 

 

 

 

 

Just as before, work around the wheel. I'm going the opposite direction just to show that either should work. If you're having to work really hard (use more lube!) work clockwise around the wheel so that you don't loosen the wheel clamp.

 

 

 

 

By this point I could have taken the tool out, but it was going really smoothly so I just kept working around

 

 

 

 

Tada! Victory!!! (less than 5 minutes total at this point, even with stopping for pics)

 

 

 

 

Step 4: Clean rim. Look at all that junk in the bead area! This can lead to slow leaks. Clean this while you have access. This also gives you a great image of the drop center that you're needing to keep the bead in to get the slack required to get the bead over the lip.

 

 

 

 

You can use a wire brush by hand which should only take 5-10 minutes. I used an air powered wire wheel CAREFULLY and it went pretty quick.

 

 

 

 

Step 5: Putting the tire on. Here's the other end of the tool I've been using that's used for putting the bead onto the rim. You'll notice it's wedge shaped, meaning you can only work one direction around the wheel, not both like when taking the bead off.

 

 

 

 

So put the hook side over the rim and get the bead on the outside groove.

 

 

 

 

You can use the tool to work around, or you can "put the tire on like a man" for the first bead.

 

 

 

 

Then get a bar in there and just force the sucker over.

 

 

 

 

Before you know it, success:

 

 

 

 

For the second bead you'll definitely want to use the tool, so here's how. Get it over the lip of the rim, and get the tire onto the tool as shown.

 

 

 

Keep the bead over the lip in the drop center, which will be complicated at first, and this is the main part that I feel really benefits from having an extra set of hands. Keep working around. Careful that you don't loose the bead off the end of the tool. Go slowly if you have to and force the bead down by hand on the tool to keep it in the center.

 

 

 

Just keep working around.

 

 

 

Almost there!

 

 

 

 

Once you to the point above, just lift the bar and it'll push the last of the bead over.

 

 

 

 

Tada. The tire is on!

 

Step 6: Seat the bead and fill with air. You can use a basic quick connect connector on the valve stem since you don't have the core in. This will get you maximum flow getting the bead to seat relatively easy. If you have issues with air leaking by, thus not making progress, push down on the tire to get it sat on the lower bead a little, then apply light upwards pressure right at the valve stem seal and when you put the air back on it you shouldn't have issues getting it to seat.

 

 

 

 

You'll heard the bead pop on. Listen carefully for both pops and once they're on pull the air off. No need to explode a tire in your face.

 

 

 

Tada, seated tire! Fill up to pressure with gauge

 

 

 

Now stick the core back in, and if I can do this with gloves on...

 

 

 

 

Handy core tool used again

 

 

 

Now I'll run through some few details about using the bead breaker built into the stand. Notice the block under the wheel. You need to get the wheel close to level. Then stick your bar in and push away. Should get the bead off in short order. If it seems like the tool is slipping up the sidewall then push down, then release tension for a second and slip the edge inward towards the bead edge and apply pressure again, effectively choking up on the edge of the bead. Repeat this as necessary to get a good grip on the bead. Once you have grip, leverage, and lube it'll push down with ease.

 

 

 

 

Step 7: Balancing. I'll be showing how to use a bubble balancer which looks something like this.

 

 

 

Above is the bottom half, and then with the top half:

 

 

 

And here's a very handy weight wrench tool that makes the job much easier than just using normal pliers. Notice the three main parts. There's a mouth at the top to grab weights with, a hammer to put them on, and groves on the inside to close the clamp on the weight.

 

 

 

 

First remove any weights on the wheel (you can do this before starting any of the day's tire work, or just leave it till balancing. Your choice. Just put the pointy end of the pliers in the hole of the weight clip and rotate inwards to the center of the tire. Comes off with ease.

 

 

 

Now put the wheel on the balancer, making sure to lift it lightly several times to get it nice and seated on the balancer. If it's not mounted level then you won't get accurate readings, which is probably the biggest problem with a bubble balancer. This unit here isn't extremely accurate, but will get the job done for around town and safe freeway speed driving.

 

 

 

Note the position of the bubble. You'll want to add weight in this direction.

 

 

 

Just set the weight on the rim to then check the bubble. Weights come in quarter ounce increments. I only needed .25 and .5 weights for my wheels but having other varieties handy might be nice.

 

 

 

Check the bubble again to see where you're at. If the bubble didn't move in the exact direction you wanted play around with shifting the weight around to see if you can get it going towards center. Play with heavier and lighter weights to see if it's where you want it. I ended up getting a little closer than this, but you get the idea.

 

 

 

 

Mark the position the weight is at and then pull the weight off. You'll need to close the clamp like so, so that it doesn't fling off on the freeway (at hit some poor guy's windshield!!! Shame on you!)

 

 

 

Then pull the wheel off the balancer and hammer the weight on. You can do this on the balancer, but it IS a precision instrument, and it's probably best not to abuse it if you can.

 

 

 

Now just set it back on the level and see if it's as close as you were hoping for. If it's gotten worse, check and make sure that it's sitting nice and level on the balancer, and check again. If you have to repeat the process to get it as level as you can. Being a little anal here can really go along way, and if there's no vibrations then you can save a trip to the local tire shop to have them use their fancy balancers (which might be wise anyways if you're going to be doing much racing).

 

 

And that's about it. In case I didn't stress it enough, use lots of lube on the beads, it will make life easier. First weekend doing this I was quite sore the next day, but this time I feel much better and we even ran into more snags. Still beats what most local shops charge to do it, with their much nicer machines at that!

 

I just wanted to show people it can be done, and easily at that. It doesn't take much. I'm getting good enough already (after a whopping 4 tires) to get each wheel done under 15 minutes. With more practice and another young guy with energy helping me I'm sure I could cut that in half. Some key points to make it easy. 1: Lube. 2: A stable stand!!! Get it bolted to concrete if you can, or welded to a base that's a good 50+ pounds, maybe even 200 pounds or more if you don't plan on moving it much. 3. A good air compressor.

 

What I really found amazing about using such simple tools is that I really can see doing this with ingenuity with what you might have on hand, once you understand the basic concepts. It doesn't take much more than keeping the rim stable and some good bars to pry with. If and when I have a truck that's towing vehicles for track days I plan on having a basic tire changing stand I can bring with me and mount to the truck. You never know when these skills might come in handy.

 

Hopefully I haven't missed too much, and I hope it's help to someone out there.

Edited March 30, 2011 by Gollum