The Cal-look Lounge

I'm having a little trouble finding the right valves for my ET Mags, the ones i got are correct in diameter, but won't fix in length, so the valves could easily pop out into the tyre.

So the question is, what type of valves are you running with your ET's, Rockets, Crestlines, etc.?

Thanks in advance!

You need inner-mount threaded valve stems like these:

(http://priertiresupply.biz/images/productimages/valve-stems/416ms-dt.jpg)

They come in different lengths but this is a popular one.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/gor-vs402c (http://www.summitracing.com/parts/gor-vs402c)



 

Just run TUBES dude - I found my Cal Parts were very "porus" and leaked over time - I suspect ET's might be the same due to the Ali/steel combo  :-\

You can order them from Longstone tires

And a big bonus is you can repair almost ANY puncher  ;) :)

puncture

Tubes add weight to an already heavy wheel.

Tubes increase tire-operating temperature.

To repair a tube you still have to break the bead and wrestle the tube out and back in.

E-T wheels do not leak any more than a conventional steel wheel. Remember, they are a steel wheel welded to a steel ring cast into an aluminum center.

Any porous wheel can be made air tight with an application of good-quality epoxy primer like PPG DP-series primer-sealer, a good idea for non-porous wheels too.

If you simply must run tubes in radial tires make sure to get tubes made for radial tires. Otherwise avoid tubes if you can. 

Seriously...... You have nothing better to do than "Spell check" other peoples posts - With NO imput to the thread  :-\

As for tubes...... Yes they effect things like "tire operating temps" etc etc but unless your planning on driving round a race track for hour after hour is it really going to be a problem  :-\ :)

And as for PUNCHERS my point was that tire can only be repaired to a point..... ie not to close to the edge of the tread etc etc and a tube can repaired almost any place even with a bicycle repair kit  :)

I would use them every time - its just easyier  :)

i correct spellings everyday its my job ;) Lee don't be so touchy.  I read all the threads, its just that this one mistake bugged me.

I run no tubes in my ET Mags and got valves like the above from a US car shop.

My buddy and I tried to avoid running tubes at all costs on a set of old Crestline wheels. They were very pourous, so we epoxied the inside, etc. The tires still leaked badly, but at the bead. He ended up putting the tubes back in, and has since run many thousands of trouble free miles.

Not sure why the leak was at the bead?

Had a set of ET's once... You're right on the steel hoop, but I'm almost positive the centers were more like a hat and riveted to the hoops? I could be wrong though, I can't find a picture of my old wheels anywhere. I think the bead area was similar to the Crestline's, but we never tried mounted tires on them.

Hey, I just want to offer a counterpoint to further educate people. The best decision is an informed decision.

There are reasons the tire manufacturers went to great lengths to design tubeless tires and I think you could find considerable debate whether tubes make life any easier. Tires with tubes generally lose their pressure faster than tubeless tires when punctured. A few of our cars have tubes and I have more problems with them than I do with our cars that run tubeless. The tubes sometimes fail around the valve stems before the tires wear out. On the other hand I can count the number of times on one hand that I've had to have a tubeless tire repaired and I've logged more than half a million miles.

From my experience poor machining or pitting will cause them to leak at the bead. I had a friend who had some really pitted aluminum wheels. He sandblasted them, built up the surface with JB Weld, and board sanded them flat. Held air perfectly.


If it had rivets then it was likely another brand like Rocket or Circle Track (or Track O or Track or however it was intended). Some of those were steel rims riveted to aluminum faces and I think one design was half an aluminum rim (outer) with half a steel rim (inner) riveted to it.

According to Dick Beith (and I talked to him earlier this week about this very thing) ALL composite Wheel Centre Co wheels were welded. He called his composite design Duo-Lite. He die-cast the faces with a steel ring in them and welded those to the rim.

Actually that's not entirely true. His very first five-spoke wheels were aluminum centers that he had cast. They bolted to steel rims. But that was for small-pattern wheels only. He did not do a VW wheel that way. And he didn't do many wheels that way.

BTW, there's a reason Crestline wheels look so much like E-T wheels: According to Dick, when he fired the foundry that cast his wheels it copied the patterns and either formed another business to sell wheels as Crestline or sold the patterns to a separate company that paid the foundry to cast them. Wheel Centre Co., Crestline, and the foundry were all in Walnut Creek.

The so called ET's I have seen have been WELDED  :-\ which I thought was VERY strange, so basiclly there is a cast ali front piece with half a steel band welded to the back of it - very very odd  :-\

My main point is that in most cases we have NO idea of the history/real condition of these 40/50yrs old wheels we choose to run so why mess around, I know it would be "better" to not run tubes BUT they do solve 99.9% of the probelms we get with these OLD, USED, 40yr old wheels  :)

I found them!

http://cal-look.no/lounge/index.php/topic,3287.0.html

Definitely riveted.

At the risk of getting further off topic...

Dick was pretty adamant that he welded all but his earliest wheels (as mentioned, he bolted those). He was also pretty sore that Crestline copied his stuff so closely. I'd be willing to bet those were not E-T.

But are you absolutely sure they are ET's? My ET's are welded, not riveted.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=329026&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=mags&start=0

My logic at the time was that they were ET's, but who knows ::)

Thanks guys, I will try to get some of the inner-mount threaded valve stems.

BTW: Would someone be so kind and school me about the history of the Mag wheels like ET´s, Rocket´s, Crestline´s, Cal Parts, etc...? I only know they´re from somewhere in the 60´s and were used in the early days.