Farmall 450 tire ballast removal

[Mr. T. Minnesota]

Forum,
I am looking at a Farmall 450 tractor. Either a friend or I may purchase it. Issue is the valve stem is corroded to the point of non functioning. What is the best way to remove the chloride from the tire? I do not plan on refilling the tire with fluid. I will replace the tube with a new one when complete. Any and all thoughts are welcome.

 

[504]

Just replace the stem.you will need to know if it is
the inside thread or the outside thread stem. roll the
stem to the top and take out the old and install the
new(you should jack it up first)

 

[glennster]

i use the liquid fill kit, napa has them. its an adapter to hook a garden hose to the tire valve. then i use a transfer pump to pump the calcium
into a plastic drum. harbor freight has a pump for about 60 dollars. i will post a link.
transfer pump

 

[glennster]

here is the fill adapter
poke here

 

[rustred]

From my experience u only need to replace the valve
stem. 2 types so see which one u have. Put the stem to
the top and remove and replace. But if u want to spend a
pile of money replacing tubes its your call, as replacing
the stems is preventative maintenance on fluid filled tires.
And is cheap like 5.00 a stem.

 

[redforlife]

Although the tube might have a replaceable
stem, if it's corroded to the point of not
working, you might ruin the tube trying to
remove the replaceable stem.

If this is the only thing wrong, I would
try changing the stem if I was to not break
the tire down otherwise.

But if I was breaking the tire down anyhow,
I wouldn't worry about it and figure on
buying new tubes.

Even if you were to pump this highly
corrosive fluid out, you'll likely not get
all of it out. You can get the majority of
it out, yes, but not all of it. And if
having fluid free tires (because of the
corrosive fluid) is your goal, then not
getting all of it out is not going to be
good enough.

If I'm replacing the tube, and not putting
fluid back in, I just drain it out on the
ground. Kind of time consuming dealing with
the small hole, but thats what I do. Beware
of this though. That fluid will kill out
the ground. Nothing will grow there for a
long while. So I just do it in a gravel
driveway or someplace like that, where I
don't want nothing to grow anyways.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Since the OP's intention was to replace the tube, no need to put a lot of effort into trying to save this one, and no need to wring hands over not being able to get all the fluid out.

Tire guys have a "probe" that they use when the valve stem fails. Twist the valve stem off, jam in the probe. It's just a tube that fits in the hole cut at an angle.

There will be spillage. Don't go into this job expecting to contain every drop.

When you go to twist off the valve stem, make sure it is at the TOP, and the wheel jacked up and supported. Have a 5 gallon bucket ready if the person that filled the tire got overzealous and pumped it right full. When that stem comes off, it might get exciting.

 

[Jim.ME]

If it is calcium you don't want it on the ground in an area you generally work in, JMO. It will be sticky for quite a while and rust tools.

The stem is molded to the inner tube; the valve core housing is the removable/replaceable part. There is a common Shrader valve in the core housing that can be replaced as well and is often needed with ballasted tires. A rustred mentioned there are two types. If there are signs of fluid leaking out around the stem hole the tube should be replaced. If it is dry and the problem is just the valve core housing, you can replace it. It sounds like you want to get rid of the ballast, period.

If you want to have a minimal mess. Jack that side up and block securely. Turn the tire so the stem is at the top. Remove the valve core housing from the stem. Fit a hose over the stem and clamp it (hose keeps the fluid from just getting on everything. Run the hose to a pail or the ground away from your work area. Turn the tire to rotate the stem downward and the ballast should run to the pail/ground, turning the tire to bring the stem back up will stop the flow for emptying the pail.

You can get the ballast fill kits as mentioned. I have used a piece of brake tubing, that fit through the stem hole after the valve core housing was removed, hosed to a cheap drill pump to get most of the fluid out of a tire after drain all I could draining as above.

There is the option of take it to a tire shop and have them remove the fluid and dismount the tire. Then you can take the rim, tire, and new tube home. Clean, repair, prep, and paint the rim before mounting the tire with the new tube.

To be clear on the tube stem parts.

 

[caterpillar guy]

If it is leaking like described just Change the stem in the pipe on the tube like said do have the other new stem ready to put in and iit can be done with a minimum of loss and mess, I change them out by jacking them up so tire is off the ground loosen the old one up some get the new one there ready to jam in the hole when old comes out then screw them in. I also tighten just a snug with pliers to make sure they don't work out or some smat alec doesn't decide to make a game out of them. it doesn't turn just you will se when done. If leaks are fixed when seen chloride is not as bad as it is reputed to be. But they have to be fixed when found not months or years later than blame the chloride on how bad it is.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

A comment on getting it on the ground. That's the least of your worries, unless you're changing them in your wife's azaleas.

Had the tire guy put a new set of rears on the little Maxxum last spring, because the valve stems were leaking, seized, and the tires were pretty much bald anyway.

He made a bloody mess where the tractor sat in the barn. If CaCl were red, it would have looked like a murder scene. Within a few days you couldn't even tell anything happened. No sticky, no nothing. This is one of those situations where "throw some dirt on it" is the name of the game.

 

[Mr. T. Minnesota]

Thanks for the input. Returned to the 450 yesterday to work on the chloride filled tires. I did not notice the initial tire I wanted to work on had drained out over a years time. The second
tire needed draining and got that accomplished. Now all I must do is wait for the tire shop to let me know if the rim is workable. If not it will be another $300 plus for a new one. Then
of course there is the other rim to consider. Hopefully both are good or my first Farmall will be costly. Never a dull moment when dealing with equipment that is about my age,old! Any
and thoughts are welcome.