Axles and tires for power wheelchair

I've seen my share of "pourous" inner tubes that passed air right through the rubber, enough to flatten the tire over a couple months, but slowly enough that you could never find a leak immersing the tube in soapy water at low pressure. VERY common problem with cheap chinese or vietnamese bicycle tire tubes.

Reply to
clare
Loading thread data ...

Actually I was thinking a ringfeder might be better for a less equipped person because it is self adjusting with only hand tools (hex wrenches) and has a fairly large adjustment range, and holds very securely. It's also easily removable.

What I hadn't thought about was that you'd probably have to bore out the hole in the wheel slightly, and yes that would need a lathe or broach and about five minutes work in a machine shop. Still, it might be worth paying to have that done for a set.

Reply to
TimR

Good to know.

I actually bought, maybe 10 years ago from JCWhitney, a foam "inner tube". For my exact size tire.

Very hard to put on, but that' s not too surpising. Apparently a bit too long, because one little bump for every rotation. I hoped that would go away but rode it last year, same bump. But not flat in 9 years. If it werent' for the bump, I'd look for and buy another one.

Reply to
micky

I'm taking the wheels off an unrepairable Black and Decker lawnmower, and hoped they woudl fit a garbage can whose wheel just broke off, but the can's axle is small. I haven't tried to do it, or to find a bushing yet.

Reply to
micky

Often you can find a "stripper bolt" - made for use in dies - that fits the wheel hole and threads into the smaller hole - likely won't work for your garbage can. For this low speed low load app, even a plastic bushing would do the job - particularly in a plastic wheel.

Reply to
clare

I remember thinking the last time I pulled a tire from the rim how much gorillas at the National Zoo love playing with tires and how much easier it would be to dismount the tire if I had a tame gorilla handy.

I wonder if we would still be digging if we had to build the Panama Canal without steam shovels, which IIRC were a "miracle invention" of their era.

It just left JAX FL and will be here tomorrow. Then I will find out if the axle and hub are incompatible and will proceed accordingly. Clare and others have convinced me I don't want to try to use rims that have an oversized hub hole. Nothing good can come of it but plenty of bad things can. I'm just hoping the seller measured wrong.

Not even as old as you are by a few years, IIRC.

To connoisseurs, I am sure.

NTW certainly had and I remember being there when some poor woman was told she needed a new tire because she had fixed a nearly new tire with FaF.

My wife had a can of FaF explode in the trunk. She still carries one but it's now wrapped inside two plastic bags and slightly worn-out cloth shopping bag. It makes a hell of a mess. I had a similar disaster with 3M spray adhesive. Had to scrap a few things that were right near the can when it blew itself up like a Middle-Eastern terrorist.

There were a lot of stop-gap measures I could have taken but there are no AAA tow-trucks for disabled scooters so I want to solve this problem as permanently as possible and foam filled tires seem a good choice. Will they make the ride so hard that the scooter shakes itself apart? Well, then there's always Ebay. Scooters are cheap there because they really only sell, like cars, in a local market. If it died today I got my $175 out of it. It was almost brand new when I bought it.

Sure you can. I remember lots of them when I had a bike, sometime in the middle of the last century. I had a little lit with a cheese-grater type device to abrade the rubber, a tube of goo and various sized rubber patches. You just can't test for them without pulling the tube.

The question is do I pay another ten bucks to buy a spare inner tube for the tires I am dismounting? I think the answer is "no" because I will end up with two warn but still serviceable tube tires (with one having a slow leak) if I switch to the foam ones. We'll see tomorrow.

I'm betting a new problem, completely unpredicted, will arise then. I can't tell you how many times *that* has happened. Bought a toaster oven from Amazon and the sizes given were wildly incorrect. Wouldn't fit. Thankfully Amazon makes it cheap and easy to return stuff, especially when it's their mistake. Ironically, I just checked and two years later, the size is STILL listed incorrectly. Oh well. They apologize for their mistakes, they just don't fix them.

Reply to
Robert Green

I learned on machines that were War Department surplus (and so marked along with labels like "Loose Lips Sink Ships.") They were huge machines all run from an overhead drive system with long, long belts in cages that reached up from the lathes to the ceiling. Made for great entertainment when a belt broke. We even had turret lathes, hydraulic shapers (a MOST dangerous machine to let high schoolers near) and a few other exotic machine shop tools. Almost all my good machine shop stories concern the hydraulic ram of the shaper and what happened when the cutting head was set too low and rammed into the work or the vise holding the work. It sounded like Thor twatted someone with his hammer.

There are wildly different usage patterns though. A bariatric chair has big dual 80AH batteries and heavy duty motors on each wheel as well as a reinforced frame. It's meant for severely obese people. I bought one of those from Ebay but it's just too damn heavy for me to use so it sits in the basement. I got it VERY cheap because someone connected the new batteries by twisting the heavy duty wires together and binding them with masking tape!!!!! The store selling it was only concerned that I sign a receipt that said "operates smoothly" even though it lurched every time the wires stopping touching. Its caster wheels are the size of the scooter's drive wheels.

Very good reasons not to eff around with bushings and other patches. You've convinced me it's not worth even testing bushings. Let's hope the new tires come off the oversized hub hole rims or that the guy selling them measured wrong and they are the right size hub holes to begin with. We'll find out tomorrow.

Reply to
Robert Green

Harbor Freight has a large assortment of wheels (none of them fit my scooter) that might fit your can. From 5 to 10 bucks.

Reply to
Robert Green

I guess that clinches my decision not to get a new tube for the bad tire.

Reply to
Robert Green

I might try that on the tube that's got the slow leak or on the nose wheel.

Thanks

Reply to
Robert Green

I'll remember that for something else, but it's too much money for this. Here the goal is to use the wheels that I'm taking off the lawnmower.

As far as fxing the garbage can, when my trash overflows into it, I just drag it to the curb on one wheel. (It turns out Baltimore County discourages the use of garbage cans with wheels because they break. I guess they break when the garbage man throws the whole thing back on the ground, which I think is fair. Though for some reaosn for the last year, they've been putting all the garbage cans upright with their lids sitting on top. I wonder why. )

But in a week or two I'll post a question about fixing lawnmowers.

Reply to
micky

At ACE hardware today. They had green slime filled tubes for lawnmowers or something with wheels.

Reply to
micky

MISSA, START HERE

I was watching a gorilla on TV, and I noticed that he had a better manicure than I do.

Missa, continue where it says start here again, but you may find a little of the middle interesting.

Oh, that's right we talked aobut this.

MISSA, START HERE AGAIN MAYBE.

BUT SURELY HERE.

She should go to a working class n'hood where they don't play games like that.

I had the pipe that's part of the catalytic converter, in front of it, separate. Two or three shops in my n'hood wanted to replace the converter for hundreds of dollars. I went to a n'hood that's not even poor, just working class (I hate that use of class, but don't know a synonym.) The guy at the muffler shop didn't object at all to repairing it, and he let me watch as he welded a bead 360 degrees around it, then went back and welded a second bead 360 degrees around it. Did a very skilled job, a great job. Only wanted maybe 30 dollars. I think I gave him 40. (No one tips auto repairmen here, afaik, but people do in NYC, so I do sometimes. Especiallly here. I still saved maybe 260 dollars. That's a lot of money.) And the weld was good until I got rid of the car.

I told my ex-girlfriend about this. She's a Baltimore native or maybe she's savvy for other reasons. She told me to go to a shop in a working class n'hood.

Now Missa can quit when she gets bored, though maybe she won't.

OOOH. What color was the car?

That sounds even worse.

Hey, that's a need that needs to be filled. Maybe that's how we'll get rich. Start the ASA.

Bicycle tires are suppopsed to be firm, so maybe this is a bad comparison. My solid foam bicycle "tube" on the front wheel doesn't change the ride (except for that bump every rotation, but your foam won't be solid foam, will it be? I thought it was liquid foam or something. Anyhow since they're making it all in one location, I'm sure there won't be a bump. The tire I put the "tube" in was about 20 years old. I found lots of bike tires on the street in NYC --- I don't know why -- and brought some with me.

The whole scooter was 175!!! That is cheap.

I didn't remember that those could be slow. I stand corrected by you and Clare.

Good to know.

LOL. Some of the things sold online have dimensions but the dimensions are of the box! But that wasn't your situation or it would have fit with ease.

Reply to
micky

Well come to think of it, Dana's Used Tires is in a working class n'hood and that was the place I refer to at the top here. And they have a sign I think prohibiting goo. But Dana's is unusual. You can get in, buy 2 used tires, maybe from a car that was wrecked, get them mounted and dynamically balanced, pay, and be out in as little as 5 minutes. 15 would be very slow. They don't want to get slowed down by goo.

Reply to
micky

Not something I think I'd admit to. (-:

I knew something unexpected would go wrong with the tires. Aside from the microwave and the toaster oven dying on the same day, the USPS site says "Delivered at 9:51AM" but there's no box at any of the doors. I had this happen once before when they delivered a package to the college kids living across the street and it just vanished. )-:

Reply to
Robert Green

When that wheel goes, then you have a problem! (-: Can you attach casters to the bottom of the can? There are always casters to be "repurposed" lying around in my boxes of spare parts. Got some great, industrial quality ones at HF for $3. You could make wheels out of 3/4" ply.

They even break the huge rolling carts we use tossing them around where i live. I've learned how to nudge them out of the driveway in the van when they dump my neighbor's can at the end of my driveway.

How are they spare wheels if you're going to repair the mower?

Got the two wheels. Post Office said about the "delivered" error "sometimes the system hiccups." How comforting.

They are very much brand new - but the wrong hub size as I suspected. Oh well, can't have everything. Still much cheaper than just the tires and inserts alone so now I'll have two nice rims that fit nothing!

Then I saw "tube type" on the tire wall and freaked until I noticed that a) there wasn't any valve sticking out and b) I could see the foam insert through the hole in the rim where the stem goes. Now to find the appropriate socket wrenches and split those rims. I am hoping this is a simple procedure. I've had tire lug nuts on cars that were apparently put on by Hercules.

Reply to
Robert Green

I have lots of casters from desk chairs, but that' about all.

I think to mount screw-mount casters, I'd have to stick my head way down in the garbage can. Probably smells too bad to do that.

The *goal* is to use the lawnmower wheels. If I can't use them, I'll keep dragging, but only when the first two garbage cans have filled up. That's not often.

I have 4 lawnmowers, An electric one that broke in June,

An electric that belongs to a friend's landlady that broke before June, whose metal cylinder surrounding the motor is crumbling. That's the one that's scrapped. I got four wheels, the on-off switch with cable. The bridge rectifier, a big wing nut, motor brushes and the things that hold them on, (both used in many of their motors)

A gas mower that worked okay before I got the electric, but has suffered from not being run for 2 years. And won't start.

A "new" electric, which works well.

That's good. I wonder where they spent the night.

I'll bet.

Reply to
micky

Probably right. Scotch that idea! (Where did that term come from?)

Gotta love the net, asked and answered:

formatting link

I can remember a time at college when I would make lists of terms I would come across when studying to look up later in the engineering library. Now it's so much easier - although less likely to meet librarians like the very "hair up in a bun" sssshhing type woman I met that became quite a different person outside the library. Never judge a book by its cover.

I have that overflow can! (-: But it's county owned and when they break it, they replace it (about 3 to 5 years, IIRC). I pay for it indirectly, I am sure, and at a rate that would astound me if I knew, but I don't.

I am going to have to take pictures of the wheels I am "converting" because there are remarkable differences between the old and the new ones and I am not really sure why each wheel was designed the way it was.

I should have known. You are a self-confessed trash hound that makes new faucets appear magically in the weeds. You do know that "I found it in the weeds" sounds suspiciously like "it fell off a truck" - the Soprano's motto.

With the advent of Arthur(itis) I no longer collect spare parts if they require significant breakdown. It makes my hands shake like a junkie to toss something that might have value, though. My 30 year old (exactly, last month) Litton microwave first started making noise (fan, probably and then yesterday started emitting *very* stinky magic smoke.

The real test of my resolve to no longer collect things I'll likely never use will come this week. If I can tote the oven to the curb without "cracking it" I'll know I am no longer a spare parts junkie. I think it uses safety screw heads that I might not even have tools for. That would make scrapping it whole even easier.

My palms are starting to sweat and I am thinking - what if only the fan's bad? Nope - I paid $79 for it 30 years ago. I got my money's worth. Maybe it was fixable before the stinky smoke but I suspect it's now degraded a whole level.

My wife wants it gone because it doesn't clean up well and I repaired the handle with steel wire and epoxy and it looks it. I like it because it has a simple spring-wound twist timer that has never failed, a common fault of modern units.

I wouldn't start either after not running for 2 years.

Before I hired Romero and Pedro to do the lawn for $40 every two weeks, I used a very nice B&D rechargeable whose battery died. From B&D, $120, from OEM's, $65 and with two standard 12V 12AH UPS batteries, which I intend to strap in series, only $44 with batteries that have other uses in the wintertime and so won't degrade in storage.

Fortunately the two 12/12AH's are almost exactly the same size as the big, square 12/24AH battery I am replacing with them. The front's small enough to do when it's cool enough to do it. Had one friend keel over mowing the lawn in 90F/96%RH weather. That's when I started paying Romero and crew. Cheaper than heart attack rehab.

It's hard to give up on stuff you've been able to do all your life. It's even harder to watch someone do it less well than the way you would have done it but to bite your tongue if you want them to come back.

I've learned not to complain about minor fit and finish issues but to open my mouth if there's a safety or serious common sense issue. Repairing a cut through trimmer cord with duct tape was something I didn't complain about last time but would if it happened again.

Especially since I can't seem to find my deep sockets and the nuts I need to loosen (I was going to write for some odd reason "unloosen" which I guess actually means tighten). The nuts I need to "untighten" are deep inside the rim where nothing but a socket will fit. Not even sure if my sockets are metric or even if the nuts are. What I do know is that they are just large enough to be too large for the biggest socket in my 110 pc socket driver and bit set.

Reply to
Robert Green

Oddly enough, I finally got the slow leak tube dismounted and before I could even get it to the tub for a leak check, I notice it oozing green slime from a tiny hole in the tube on the center of the outermost edge of the tube (the contact patch) where you would expect a puncture to occur.

The tube expanded to about twice its normal size even with just a few pounds of air pressure (I don't remember bike tubes doing that and never had a tube-tired car). I was too afear'd to inflate it further, but there's clearly green goop in it. Not sure whether to buy a new one or repair this one or ditch it since I've got foam tires now.

As I was loosening the split rims I noticed that the remaining nuts were getting harder and harder to remove (I had to hit the wrench with a hammer to loosen them - no lock washers, either which I thought was odd). Then I realized "D'oh" it would probably be a good idea to deflate the inner tube and then I could hear the rubber tire start to detach from the rims. Should have remembered that about tires. Senility strikes again.

It's a good thing I reflexively mark all pieces with sharpie like this A>

Reply to
Robert Green

Is this about marryin' the librarian?

I had an old plastic can with a half dozen vertical slits from the bottom about 12 inches up, but it still worked. I just didn't put things in it that could make their way out. But Baltimore County took it away one day. Now I read in their Trash Guide that if you want a garbage can, waste basket, or *laundry basket* removed, you have to write a note specifically telling them to do so. I guess someone else complained.

No. It was literally in the grass. And the only thing in the grass too. No trash, no litter. And just what I needed. And not the first time.

After college when I moved from Chicago to Brooklyn, I had bought 3 bicycles at the police auction, to sell to incoming students at a profit. Sold 2 but not the last one, which was gold and had accessories. Left it chained in the basement of my apt for a year, and came back determined to sell it, which I did, but I removed the speedometer. Years later I decided to put the speedometer on my current bike, but the inside of the cable was missing. I couldn't believe I was that careless, because I knew it had a cable inside the housing, like bike brakes and gear controls.

A couple months later, I go see my mother in Pa. As she sometimes did, she gave me a piece of junk hardware, and it was the very cable that belonged inside the biicycle speedometer. She had found it while walking across a parking lot in Allentown, Pa. When she bent down to pick it up, her husband said "What do you want that for? And she said Micky might want it. I spent years trying to figure out if I had been in Pa. and lost it there myself, but I drove straight through from Chi. to NY, with a trailer that I never opened.

At least that would be either hard or expensive to fix.

Yeah, it will.

I bought a photocopier from work for a dollar, needed a 30 dollar heater/ixer for the ink, made a couple hundred copies before it broke again, and when I scrapped it 20 years ago, I saved the rollers, about the size of baker's rolling pins. They don't fit with anything else I have stored and I want to throw them away, but ...... the things you'll never use are the things that would be hard to buy if you needed them. The things you are likely to use, you can buy if you need one. .

Yes, the smell is a bad sign. The lawnmower I junked smelled like burning something, though I saw no smoke.

Yeah, yeah. Most timers work. I'll admit the new ones are too complicated. The one I'm using now, I went to pick up something a Freecycler was giving me, and in the driveway on its side with the door open was a microwave. I figured they were thowing it away, so I asked and she said I could have it. She had melted some plastic in it and thought it was poisonous to use. She had 3 little kids, and maybe I'd be ridiculously careful too if I had little kids. I woudl certaainly be more careful than I am with myself, and there was some "dirt" on the inside oven walls, so I didn't try to convince her that the microwave was safe. I dl'd the manual and there are ways to tell it how much the food weighs and what the food is and it knows how long to cook it, but I can't remember, and I don't know how much the food weighs. And there's a popcorn button if you push 1, 2, or 3 times it's for different size bags!! I knew that for a while, but I've forgotten now.

Maybe that would have been a good idea. Craig's list had a battery one for sale, iirc.

Wow.

Didn't something come with the car? Of course I bent my almost L-shaped jack-handle, lug-wrench by standing on it to get a lug nut off. Well standing on it worked for a couple nuts, but for the last one I sort of jumped up and down. I was only 180 then iirc.

Reply to
micky

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.