Professional Tire Changing And Wheel Balancing

By Author: Brian Davis
Total Articles: 20
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Have you ever wondered how your mechanic changes out your tires? Wonder no more. Professional tire changing equipment is a staple for most shops and garages, and here to show you how it's done (and not done!) is CarCast's own Sandy Ganz.

If you have ever wanted to see tires changed the right way, this video is just the ticket. Not only will you see the right way to change a tire with the right equipment, you will also get to see a professional balancing using what every pro needs in his garage.

Host Sandy Ganz gives you a demonstration of how easy it is to change a tire when you have the best tools for the job. In this case, the best tools include the Ranger R26EX tire changer, a BendPak low-rise car lift and a Ranger wheel balancer for extra credit. The tires in question come from an old '65 Mustang convertible his buddy Donny is intermittently restoring, but he leaves Sandy to do the tire job himself.

That's fine, because Sandy goes through step-by-step how to change a tire in what turns out to be a pretty entertaining tire-changing tutorial video. First he demounts and deflates the tire before breaking ...
... the bead with the aid of the bead-breaking blade on the side of the tire changer. Then at around 2:49, Sandy takes a short intermission from the tire changing how-to segment and shows us the WRONG way to re-seat a tire bead with the WRONG tools... starter fluid and a box of matches. Following some exciting pyrotechnics (3:40), Sandy vows to never mount a tire with Quick Start again and gets back to work.

After breaking the bead all over again, Sandy clamps the outside of the 14" rim on the tire changer turntable and lubricates the rubber around the wheel. Then he sets the duckhead tool between the rim and the tire, wedges the included pry bar into the open space and rotates the turntable. The tire comes off "easy as pie." He does the same to the bottom of the tire and then replaces the valve stem with a shiny new one for Donny.

Next in the tire changing how-to video from the Adam Carolla CarCast, Sandy needs to put the replacement tire onto the wheel. He re-clamps the rim securely into the tire changer's turntable, inspects the sealing bead for obstructions and lubricates the brand new tire. Sandy does a decent job of shoving the tire on the wheel by hand before bringing in the duckhead and the turntable's rotation to push the tire into the sealing bead, all without the aid of a pry bar. Once he reseats the bead with the included air hose, Sandy is all set to balance the Mustang's new tire on the Ranger DST-Series wheel balancer.

Sandy begins wheel balancing procedures by locking in the tire with the included wheel balancer adapters and inputting the parameters into the control panel. Then, he lowers the safety shield and lets the machine spin the wheel to detect the current balance. Following the information on the readout, Sandy selects the appropriate weights and sticks them where the wheel balancer suggests. Again, he lowers the shield and tests the weight. Sandy determines that the slight remaining imbalance is fine for Donny's old Mustang and finishes up by remounting the wheel with a torque wrench.

Now all he has to do is the exact same thing three more times. Click here (http://www.motorator.com/videos/1259) to watch the Adam Carolla CarCast "Tire Job" segment for yourself.

Brian Davis is an expert on Auto Repair Equipment and has written numerous articles on the Auto Repair Equipment industry.

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