• Can't post after logging to the forum for the first time... Try Again - If you can't post in the forum, sign out of both the membership site and the forum and log in again. Make sure your COG membership is active and your browser allow cookies. If you still can't post, contact the COG IT guy at IT@Concours.org.
  • IF YOU GET 404 ERROR: This may be due to using a link in a post from prior to the web migration. Content was brought over from the old forum as is, but the links may be in error. If the link contains "cog-online.org" it is an old link and will not work.

My other motorcycle is a tractor

Scary Harry

Fear is not boring. COG# 4090
Member
Discovered my tractor had a flat tire thanks to some nasty grease wood.
Pulled the wheel of, located the leak, cleaned out the hole, plugged it, then tested for a leak.

I discovered that air is leaking through the plug, bubbles developing at the end of the plug ends!

Whoa! this is new to me. I thought these rubber string plugs were non-porous. This one is leaking.
See white arrows pointing out bubbles.

Is there a better plug brand?
Do these things dry up over time?

I tried some newer plugs, and this time no leaks.

plug leak.jpg

I'm now beginning to lose trust in these plugs.

Any suggestions?
 
Discovered my tractor had a flat tire thanks to some nasty grease wood.
Pulled the wheel of, located the leak, cleaned out the hole, plugged it, then tested for a leak.

I discovered that air is leaking through the plug, bubbles developing at the end of the plug ends!

Whoa! this is new to me. I thought these rubber string plugs were non-porous. This one is leaking.
See white arrows pointing out bubbles.

Is there a better plug brand?
Do these things dry up over time?

I tried some newer plugs, and this time no leaks.

View attachment 30609

I'm now beginning to lose trust in these plugs.

Any suggestions?

Need to keep them fresh, which means they can't sit in the paniers on blazing hot summer days nor freezing cold days. They have a shelf life for sure. I keep my kit in double ziplock baggies and then wrapped in blue paper towels inside the kit's box. I also don't have the kit in the panier above the exhaust. I keep all the important stuff on the clutch side instead.
 
Leaning new stuff every day. I'll have to freshen all my plug kits from now on.

Good thing I wasn't doing 70 with that tire.
 
Harry, I use the brown repair sticky/ropes.. What you have is rubber?
This is a good reminder to me though, that I need to get a new/fresher batch of them.

By the way, My other Motorcycle is a Model T Ford.
You don't even want to know what it takes to fix a flat on one of those!

Ride safe, Ted
 
Harry, I use the brown repair sticky/ropes.. What you have is rubber?
You know, I don't know what that stuff is.

I was surprised to discover that they could leak air. But now thinking about it, they could be some kind of fibrous material soaked in some kind of rubber compound. If they dry out over time, I suppose they could leak. I usually add rubber cement as it lubes the patch hole, but it didn't help this time. I replaced the plug and added the green slime to the inside. No more leaks.

They used to fill gaps in wooden ships with tar and hemp. Tapped in using a hammer and some wooden tools.
 
I am going to get some fresh ones and glue tubes. I will then make kits of 4 and a tube of glue. Bag it and vacuum seal it. The supies I used on my recent flat were 3 or 4 years old. It worked.
 
Harry

on my tractor I used a plug that has a patch on the bottem...looks like a mushroom, you have to break the tire down, the "stem" has a metal rod to set it all...think it came from NAPA...you install from the inside out. I'm HARD on this tractor and the patch has been in there three years with no issues ...


Murph
 
It's the greaswood Murph. Just driving through the stuff punctures tires and hydraulic lines. I have to wear gloves rated for barbed wire to clean the tractor.
 
When the leaves dry up, they turn into natural hypodermic needles.
Some ranchers resort to using flame throwers to clear it out instead of being thorned to death.
 
Harry

on my tractor I used a plug that has a patch on the bottem...looks like a mushroom, you have to break the tire down, the "stem" has a metal rod to set it all...think it came from NAPA...you install from the inside out. I'm HARD on this tractor and the patch has been in there three years with no issues ...


Murph
Is it these? They look like they would work great.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20211008-165445.png
    Screenshot_20211008-165445.png
    242.5 KB · Views: 108
Top