M35a3 tire removal from rim

[Jeffval]

I finally got the nuts off the rim and tried to pry it off and away from the tire but I can't seem to do it. I live in a remote area and am a long way from a shop. Any suggestions? Thanks so much. J.V.

 

[gringeltaube]

Patience and squirt soapy water where the prybar opens the gap. Just keep going all around, prying every 2-3 inches, it will pop up eventually.

 

[Jeffval]

Thank you very much. I got the tire and rim disassembled . I used soapy water, a a pry bar, hammer to drive wood blocks as wedges. Next time, I'll chain the tire to the hitch, then chain the rim to my other truck and pull forward.

 

[glcaines]

I have forks for my tractor. I spread the forks just wide enough to miss the ring and then press down slightly on the tire. This gives a very solid steel fork to pry against with crow bars and pry bars. And soapy water of course. I have one 5-foot pry bar that really works well. I would be concerned about pulling between two vehicles that you might warp the ring.

 

[HDN]

If you aren't planning on saving the tire, just use a Sawzall on the rim-side side wall and cut it off. Be careful to not cut through the beadlock insert. At that point the rim will lift out of the tire and insert. Remove the turret valve from the rim with a modified socket (if you plan to reuse the nut) and work off the remaining sidewall ring.

I've found the flat end of a pick axe useful when pulling the clamp ring off the wheel. I think it works better than a prybar because of the wider prying surface. A duckbill hammer should work too.

I have a thread here recording my tire job somewhere. I did all six at home without a tractor bucket or forks.

 

[HDN]

Here's my wheel project thread in case you haven't found it. I hope you find it helpful!

M35A3 Rim Restoration and Tire Swap Project (Picture-Heavy)

I'm in the midst of swapping the old 365/80R20s on my M35A3 to some pre-loved 395/85R20s. This swap has successful results documented throughout the Steel Soldiers forums, so I decided to take the plunge. I would've liked to stick with 365s because I like the look of them, but I was able to...

www.steelsoldiers.com

 

[Jeffval]

If you aren't planning on saving the tire, just use a Sawzall on the rim-side side wall and cut it off. Be careful to not cut through the beadlock insert. At that point the rim will lift out of the tire and insert. Remove the turret valve from the rim with a modified socket (if you plan to reuse the nut) and work off the remaining sidewall ring.

I've found the flat end of a pick axe useful when pulling the clamp ring off the wheel. I think it works better than a prybar because of the wider prying surface. A duckbill hammer should work too.

I have a thread here recording my tire job somewhere. I did all six at home without a tractor bucket or forks.

Hi. I rented a engine hoist and placed it on top of the tire, then attached a chain to it and lowered the chain through the rim and attached it to the tire tool, underneath the rim. Then I slowly jacked up the hoist while spraying soapy water on the rim and tire. 3 minutes later the rims popped out of the tires.
My next question is....I don't know what direction to place these tires on the rim? Both sides of the tires say "Good Year XT 395 85 R20, rated G". When I look at the pattern of the tread, I get confused about which side of the tire faces out? Are these considered Multi directional tires? Thanks so much! JV

 

[HDN]

That's good use of the engine hoist trick! That works with beadlock inserts too

I know the Michelin XZL tires are non-directional. If you can't determine a tread direction, the Goodyear tires probably are too.

If you look at your old 14.5s the Army didn't care what direction they were mounted. They were all mounted the same way at the factory, so one side of the truck had tread facing one direction, while the other side of the truck had tread facing the opposite direction

Before you button everything back up, be sure to replace the turret valve o-ring while you're at it and torque the brass nut to the proper value. That's a common leak point with these wheels. Most of the turret valves on my truck's wheels weren't torqued right from the factory - just finger-tight

 

[Jeffval]

Thanks for the advice. Do you know what the torque value is for the brass valve stem, lug nuts and the nuts for the outer ring?

 

[HDN]

The numbers you're looking for are in the first volume of the maintenance TM under the wheel maintenance section, I believe. Definitely consult it for allowable torque ranges.

From memory, and to give you an idea of what to expect:

• Clamp ring nuts are around 450 ft-lbs
• turret valve nut is around 50 ft-lbs
• lug nuts on solid studs are about 400 ft-lbs, and the hollow stud lug nut is about 300 ft-lbs.

 

[Jeffval]

Hi. I rented a engine hoist and placed it on top of the tire, then attached a chain to it and lowered the chain through the rim and attached it to the tire tool, underneath the rim. Then I slowly jacked up the hoist while spraying soapy water on the rim and tire. 3 minutes later the rims popped out of the tires.
My next question is....I don't know what direction to place these tires on the rim? Both sides of the tires say "Good Year XT 395 85 R20, rated G". When I look at the pattern of the tread, I get confused about which side of the tire faces out? Are these considered Multi directional tires? Thanks so much! JV

 

[Jeffval]

I got the new 395 85 r20s on the rims but I don't see how I can judge torquing the nuts on the ring to 450 foot pounds? It's $950 for a torque wrench that big. And how many I supposed to balance the tires? I thought about dropping the tires off at a shop to have them torque all the nuts down but how would they even balance the tires, considering the CTIS apparatus would need to be attached? And I can't really do that unless the rim is attached to the truck.

 

[HDN]

1. I didn't balance my tires. They drive fine as-is at 45 MPH. If you decide to re-mount the CTIS valves, you will have to reinstall the wheel weight. I mention what stud the weight goes on somewhere in my thread which I linked as I saw i n the TM picture. Some of my truck's wheel weights weren't placed on the correct stud from the factory.
2. With a big torque wrench I think it's going to be hard setting the clamp ring nut torque without spinning the wheel around while it's laying on the ground. I believe the best way to set clamp ring nut torque is to use a 1" drive Chinese-made torque multiplier off Amazon that's at least 54:1 and make a custom 1"-to-1/2" female-female adapter for it. To set the torque, I used a 1/4" drive torque wrench and did the math to convert the ft-lbs needed at the drive end of the torque multiplier to the in-lbs needed to be set at the torque wrench, with a gear train slop factor of 15%-20%. Reaction end works against the side of the clamp ring. Use a piece of semi-hard foam or an old phone book between the reaction arm and the clamp ring contact surface if you're concerned about scratching the paint or digging into the clamp ring.
   1. Alternatively, if you have a powerful impact wrench, I heard from other members here that tightening the clamp ring nuts down as far as they will go also works. I'm an engineer and prefer to do stuff to spec in the manual whenever I can.
   2. Be sure to tighten the clamp ring nuts evenly:
   3. 

 

[SWoods]

I Just assembled seven A3 combat rims with 14.5 Michelin XL's with internal bead locks. time consuming but I saved my back by using a chain hoist to lower tire/bead lock onto the half rim sitting on a 5 gal bucket with sand in it for stability. once the wheel was assembled and all nuts tightened with 3/4" impact gun on #2 setting, I put the tire on the front axle, lowered it down to snug on a wheel chock to hold from spinning while torquing the minimum 425 ft lbs. I used a digital torque readout adapter (Harbor Freight $69 that goes up to 700 ft lbs) that goes between the socket and the 3/4" drive breaker bar with a 4 ft long pipe for leverage. I positioned the read-out face so I could see it as I pulled on the breaker bar. It worked great and it takes some effort to pull 425 ft lbs. after all the wheel assembly nuts were torqued, I lowered the tire all the way down flat to ground then with valve core still removed installed a small length of clear vinyl tube inserted into a Gal. of uncut antifreeze, jack the tire up to create a vacuum that starts to suck the antifreeze into the tire/rim assembly then lift and set the jug on a block higher than the valve core. I used 1 Gal. in each wheel assembly for self-balancing (I do not have any CTIS as these are for my M35A2). It takes a while for the Gal of antifreeze to siphon in, so I just left it on the block while I started assembly of the next wheel tire.

 

[glcaines]

Where did you find the tires? Did they have new date codes? I understood that Michelin quit making those years ago.

 

[SWoods]

Where did you find the tires? Did they have new date codes? I understood that Michelin quit making those years ago.

I got these new years ago it’s I believe fresh date codes from militaryoffroadtires.net out of Georgia. I think he is out of business now. I lucked out and got 10 new tires with no issues, and then ordered the internal bead loks that go with that tire, that’s when my issues started he was short on the order then sent second shipment which included some wrong ones, kept chasing him and he finally sent me the last correct one. I guess I was lucky. The tires have been in indoor storage for a number of years, still look brand new.

 

[SWoods]

Looks like the Michelin replacement MPT tire for the 14.5R20 XL is now Michelin XZL 365/80R20 MPT (14.5R20 MPT) according to Michelin Military Tyre Data Book 2021.