Nothing Simpler than a flat tire

It couldn’t be simpler. A flat in my garage.

I splurged on a long handled ratchet. With a big enough lever, I’ll move the world.

I could also knock my bumper off if I’m not careful.

Wheels blocked!






But where exactly to put the jack. I only have this little original jack. Probably should have thought about that when I was at Autozone.


But is it placed right? Here’s some confusing bottom up photography.

Plus, once I get it off, how dangerous is it for the car to sit there on three wheels and a jack in the garage that people walk through ?

Where’s a cinder block to put it on when I need one?!!

 

Also, before I remove the tire, I thought I'd check to see if my local places will actually replace my inner tube. Five minutes on hold and.... NO, of course not. Nobody around does that. I can't think of anybody who will patch it for me......  Oh shit, now what?  Get a patch kit, a bucket of water, some of those spanners for putting wheels on and off?    

More research. 

It turns out that my vintage car doesn't actually have tires with inner tubes. Wheh! In fact, what was I thinking? How many decades of confusion are layered into my thinking? Cars have not used tires with  inner tubes for many many decades now. Bikes yes but cars went tubeless about fifty years ago.  How disoriented can a person like me get?  So now, am I out of the proverbial woods?

 

 But the car does require a tire that is not typically locally stocked.

my tire has lots of markings on it.

Achilles

E0258923 E4 022139  S2 WRI

But, most importantly, I see 155/80  R13 79T.

This sort of maps to this chart on Moss.

https://mossmotors.smartsupportapp.com/articles/68-13-inch-Tire-Chart

And now I've been on the phone with them.

They do have a chart. But they don't sell tires.

 

They suggested Coker Tires: 866 5163215.

 

Brother reminded me that fixing tires is pretty simple.   Why am I even shopping?  Yikes, more confusion by me for no reason. Yikes indeed!

I'm now clear that I should simply be taking the wheel off and taking it to a local place to patch....duh....How did I get so disoriented?

OK, now I see what I'm up against. I have small but modern tires. No innertubes. Just take off the wheel and in most cases, get it fixed. Easy, eh?

 

Brother suggested to me to not rely on the jack. Too dangerous. Get a pair of jack stands. Right. Back to the shop.

Onto to jacks, jack stands, and finding where to place it…after all my confusion, I decided to get some decent stuff to work with…

A pair of jack stands and a solid hydraulic jack.

Real wheel blocks of just bricks.


The punchline to my day is I got the wheel to a tire center who filled it with air but… could not find a leak!!!!


So I guess it somehow leaked around the edges, perhaps bumped loose by speed bump or pothole? So next day, I brought it home and reassembled quite quickly.






All's well that ends well!  Although my confidence took a beating....