beadlocks are the pain in my ass

[olivedrabcj7]

I got these weld on locks, theyre welded "professionally" and the bastards still leak around the welds somehow. One of them is so bad i can stand there and listen to it and it will be flat in 30 minutes. can i take them back apart and smear silicone around the welded edge to seal them up? any other ideas as to what to put on them? I'd drive this jeep off a cliff right now if the tires would stay aired up long enough to get there....:explosion

[CanMan]

Mix up some JB weld, and smear it on the welds. It should give it a 'smoothed' look when your done. If thier is still holes, go back over it.

[nhrocker]

I got these weld on locks, theyre welded "professionally" and the bastards still leak around the welds somehow.Sounds like some questionable welding to me. If you paid for it I'd go back and tell them to fix it right. Since they're already on there it shouldn't take more than a little bit to run a nice clean bead of weld around them to seal any leaks. If they did it for free, that's a whole different ball game. Never look a gift horse in the mouth, right? :cheers:

[LS1Jeeper]

What did he weld it with ? Tig Mig Stick

[Roxtar]

I'm guessing they were welded with mig.
Damn near impossible to get an airtight mig weld.
Give them to someone who can lay a clean stick bead over everything.

[LS1Jeeper]

My vote would have been TIG weld it

http://www.totalcontrolproducts.com/support/rc/weld_alum_.jpg

[Flip94ta]

Yeap, bad welds, most good shops have a red dye that they can spray or wipe over one side and if it shows on the other side its not air tight.

[Roxtar]

My vote would have been TIG weld it

http://www.totalcontrolproducts.com/support/rc/weld_alum_.jpg
Sure, they're nice but would take forever on a job like this.

[LS1Jeeper]

Sure, they're nice but would take forever on a job like this.

Yeah but quality takes time I have much more time than money so ... lol

[Swap]

also, the tire could contribute to the leak as well. My nitto's had some heavy ribbing on the inside of the tire that lays on the surface of the weld area that I had to sand down. I also laid a bead of black silicone and haven't look back. Wheel the hell out of it and drive it on the road everyday for 2 years now and not even 1 lead.

[olivedrabcj7]

Well the welds look good except in a couple spots where he started and stopped. its mig welded. I only paid $100 for 4 wheels with the locks welded on and the lock rings and hardware. I'm not complaining. I have lots of time, little money and some determination.... i put some metal filler over those questionable spots but that stuff turned out pretty brittle. im guessing theres cracks in it thats leaking. any other votes for jb weld? is that stuff air tight? maybe tire patch glue? silicone?

[crasy1_69]

when i worked at a discount tire we had a camaro come in that had trashed a rim and used jbweld to actually recreate part of the outside bead wall. it was functioning just fine with no leaks. so we replaced his rim for him.

[Roxtar]

Well the welds look good except in a couple spots where he started and stopped. its mig welded. I only paid $100 for 4 wheels with the locks welded on and the lock rings and hardware. I'm not complaining. I have lots of time, little money and some determination.... i put some metal filler over those questionable spots but that stuff turned out pretty brittle. im guessing theres cracks in it thats leaking. any other votes for jb weld? is that stuff air tight? maybe tire patch glue? silicone?Like I said, it's almost impossible to get a mig weld to be airtight.
At this point the only real fix is to give them to a good welder. He will grind the current welds down and run a new stick bead. Adding any garbage like JB or (especially) silicone will only make it harder for him to get a decent weld.

[LS1Jeeper]

Can you find where it's leaking with soap ? or is this like a "it leaks all over"

[BRIANHO13]

What about Slime, it would be good for filling all those tiny holes?

[olivedrabcj7]

ive found the leaks. its just one or 2 localized spots per wheel. i called rockstomper this morning and he said hes had customers tell him they put a healthy dose of black RTV all the way around the weld surface to seal up pinholes. ill try this and if it doesnt work, i guess i will wire wheel it all off and take them to a machine shop to be welded up good.

[Swap]

Daaaaa! isn't that what I had said? :explosion

[formatt]

It's definitely not impossible to get airtight welds with a mig... act like you know how to weld and you shouldn't have any problems.

I'm running Scott's (rockstomper) beadlocks... They're a little trickier to weld up because you're welding on that outside edge instead of inside a small "trough". I'd say just use a flapper disc to take the welds back down, in the couple locations that you found.. then just reweld over the top. Chances are, you won't have any problems at all.

__________________
matthew - 96 xj
formatt fabrications
www.formattfab.com (http://www.formattfab.com/)

[brianb2247]

ive fixed leaks on dozens of beadlocks in the military by silicone apply let it set up a bit then install the ring allow to finish setting up over night al though ive also done this and it still didnt help in some cases

[Ramsey]

i mig'd mine and they dont leak, or they leak slow enough not to worry about. i'm gonna go with user error on your part even though you didnt weld em;) just grind down the trouble spots and go back over them.

[olivedrabcj7]

OK the RTV seems to be holding. They were at the same pressure this morning as last night. I drove down the road a couple miles and even with 9 ounces of bb's in them im still getting a little shimmy. The pass side front seems to have a little wobble to it. Maybe i didnt get it perfectly centered?

[formatt]

9 oz with the Rockstomper setup seems a little light. I run 14 in mine and i get a little between 45-50..

__________________
matthew - 96 xj
formatt fabrications
www.formattfab.com (http://www.formattfab.com/)

[olivedrabcj7]

OK i will add another 7 oz. to make it an even pound. Is it normal to be able to watch the tread be out of round when its rolling? I got them centered on the rings as best i could by eyeballing them.

[formatt]

ehhh... I dunno man. If you can see that they're not centered, I'd probably recenter them. Sometimes they can be a PITA but once you get them dialed in, you'll love them!

__________________
matthew - 96 xj
formatt fabrications
www.formattfab.com (http://www.formattfab.com/)

[scoobyxj]

On the subject of bead locks. Has anyone seen the new ones from Centerline yet? It's hard to tell from the pics I dug up from there site, but they're different for shure. There is a writeup in the June issue of Dirt Sports.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/scoobyxj/CLW_RunFlatAd_IIa_450x580.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/scoobyxj/CLW_RunFlatAd_IIIa_450x580.jpg