83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

So I leave to go to the shop yesterday morning, a couple of turns out away from the house I goose the throttle and Bang! I'm going about 30mph and getting a thump, thump, thumpbang Bang, thump thump, bang thump...

When I goose the throttle it feels like the posi is slipping, just like when I broke the passenger side axle at the track, that that side of the car isn't engaged to anything but the banging noise. Steering: it binds up when I put pressure on that side of the car, again, just like the last time I broke that axle (the brake caliper/pads kept the broken axle in but would bind and make awful noises if I tried to turn).

I figured "I'll try to roll it home, gently, if it is the axle it will only go as far as the posi will hold, and even if it's something else I'll have to get it home somehow anyway and rolling it slow and steady has a better chance then stopping...

I get it in the driveway and go to look at it and the freaking tire is off the bead and all wadded up... the car is even sitting the same as it would be with an inflated tire, at least not significantly lower.

This picture was taken after I got home that night, after the rubber completely compressed allowing the wheel to sink down to the ground.


FWIW, before anyone mentions it, by happy (unhappy) coincidence I actually checked the tire pressure a few hours earlier when I filled up the gas tank and my driveway is just steep enough that I wouldn’t be able to make it out of the driveway with a flat tire.

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

Oh, and amazingly, as best as I can tell, I don't think I left any marks on the wheel after driving with the bead unseated

kretos

your very lucky

fb305svs

WIERD....

but i can see it being a possibility with some of the tires out these days... i have a leaky rim that i have yet to replace, and everytime i let it go down allt he way, the damn sidewall on the tire is buldged, buti bet i could drive it a mile to get it filled up.... good ol' stiff sidewalls...


at least the rim didnt take a shot

CrazyHawaiian

I'm assuming you wont remount that tire since the sidewall is probably toast, but did you check the tread for nails and whatnot? I've had quite a few tires break their bead at drifting events, but thats a different situation (used tires and trying to blow em up), heck sometimes we even do a lil fishtail on blown up tires already off the bead (scratches the hell out of the wheels but these are drift wheels so who cares). I've never had one do something like that while driving on the street. I'd guess some sort of nail or something, possibly a small bubble on the sidewall.

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

Heh, I once (years and years ago) broke the beads on both back tires on my ’83 doing a 180 messing around… they actually reseated almost instantly and I wouldn’t have known if it wasn’t for the fact that the tires ended up full of gravel, rocks and straw and the straw prevented the beads from fully seating and holding air for more then about an hour or two. It was pretty hard to explain to my parents what I could have been doing that was legal that would cause that stuff to get inside the tires.

I just got the wheel off the car, and I’m not seeing any catastrophic failure. The inside bead is still seated and there isn’t any major damage dto anything but the tire sidewall, and that looks like mostly minor cosmetic damage (I’ve seen what real internal damage from riding on a flat looks like, and this doesn’t have it). There is no evidence of any catastrophic failure but there is something in the tread that looks a lot like a small puncture/nail hole…the problem with that being the cause is that it does go all the way through it is big enough that the tire would have deflated in an hour or less (in other words it didn’t happen before I parked the car) but small enough that I doubt that it could have deflated in between the time that I left the house and the thing separated (maybe 2 min at the most…).

Maybe I’ll know more when I get it dismounted off the rim in the next day or two

RTFC

Just happened to me aboutthree weeks ago. I cut a tire doing around 70 and it dropped immediately on me. I pulled it off into a business parking lot and flatbedded the car home.

New tires on all 4 the next day since they were about 2 1/2 years old and had maybe 3 months left on them.

I cut a gash in the center tread aboiut 1 1/2" long and was un-repairable. Just caught some metal debris in the road I guess.

Angelis83LT

tires are getting to be pretty cheaply made. I know that truck tires (semi tires) are required by law now to be changed 2 years after manufacture date. reguardless of how many miles are put on them.... And those tires are alot better built than any tire we have on our cars... so I figure 2 years at best is the lifespan of out tires before a failure can happen with the tire itself...

laiky

Dean, i'm curious. What did you replace the goodyears with?

RTFC

I had my alignment guy slap on some BFG KDW 245-50-16's because they were quickly availiable. I have heard people around here say great things about them in the past posts(hence why I don't always trust info I find on these boards when I am in need) but also, I have owned many many various sets of BFG tires over the years (probably in upwards of 30-40 sets) for my cars- my truck alone is on its 17th set of tires since I bought it new in '89, I have keep track of that and 12 of those were BFG comp TA hr4 275/60-15 till they discontinued them, Many sets of R1 autox tires also, and then my other vehicles that I have run the older BFG comp TA's on for years of happiness- they were always a top trustworthy tire.

Thse newer G-force KDW's are nothing to write home about. You can read more on what I commented on them towards the bottom of this post.
https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=307778

MrDude_1

83 Crossfire TA:

ive seen that happen before.
when idiots use tire machines, they catch the tire.. instead of backing off and doing it again properly, they streach the tire and then it pops onto the rim.

the streached bead is always the outside bead... it'll be just slightly too big.. sometimes its enough that you can see a buldge somewhere on the bead of the rim.. usually near the bottom with the cars weight on it.

hit a curve or bump just right, and the outer beat unseats and deflates the tire...

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

Huh…interesting thought but I kinda doubt it, it’s one of the original GSC’s that came on the car, factory mounted and never been off the wheel. I haven’t had time to dismount it yet, but again, there is only something at looks like a nail puncture and I suspect doesn’t go all the way through, so I doubt it was a flat tire that caused it.

I’ll keep that in mind when I replace the tires though… I’ll probably do it myself at a friend’s shop, and although I’m a monkey with their tire machines (have only used them once, so I’m not exactly proficient), I can be totally **** retentive (mount tire, stick it on the balancer, mark tire and rim break beads and turn it to find the spot that it needs the least weight to balance…).

MrDude_1

you pretty much have to be stupid to do it..... its not something most people should worry about when changing tires.

91formulaSS

maybe not, in the 245.50.16 variety. I think 275.40.17 is where they really shine. Now I'm no suspension guru (yet), but I know when I went from 245.50.16 Cooper Cobras (came with the car) to the KDW 275.40.17 it felt like they were made from super glue. night and day difference. Made the Coopers seem really greasy. Honestly I cant compare them with any other tire of equal size because I havent run any, not really an apples to apples comparison. I think the fact that of shorter/stiffer sidewall, bigger tread blocks and wider footprint would make them perform a lot better than the smaller size. I would really be interested in your assesment of the same tire in the 275.40.17 size.

RTFC

Going from a Cooper tire to anything even the same size will show vast improvements.

Any tire compared to another one in one size will be basically the same comparison in another size. so if the Goodyear GSD3 is better than the KDW in a 245/50 16, it will be better than the KDW in a 275/40-17 comparison also.

91formulaSS

point taken.

laiky

thanks for the assessment Dean, if i ever get back on my feet and get to work on my suspension I'm due for tires. I was thinking the Goodyears GSd's but they are very expensive. I'm not a racer but i would like to make the car as good handling and predicatble as is practical for the street. Is there a cheaper tire that you can reccomend that will perform well and predicatbly in the dry and WET?