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Solving leaky wheels
Nigel Melbert (Brooklands Green 0853) from East Sussex popped a useful note on the V8BB describing how he dealt with leaky wheels on his MGBGTV8. (Dec 07)

My initial V8BB posting in July earlier this year sought fellow members' views on a difficulty I had with my MGBGTV8 - "I have a perfectly good set of original V8 wheels except that a couple slowly leak air around the rivets. I am not keen on using inner tubes and would like to avoid the expense of total refurbishment or replacement. Does anyone have any ideas how to cure this problem?"

Victor Smith responded "I use inner tubes and have no problems with them on Michelin XVS tyres. Is there any reason why you are not keen on inner tubes? Leaking round the rivets is a difficulty particularly after original V8 wheels have been refurbished as getting a good seal can be difficult."

Godfrey Barnes added "I recently had all four V8 Dunlop composite wheels refurbished. Three were good at the seal but one continued to leak in spite of
doing all the refurbisher suggested - seal all the rivets with Hammerite!!! The only solution was to cut two inner tubes in half and place over the rivets then put the complete inner tube on. I have had no problems ever since." Nigel responded saying "Thank you for your ideas. I am not against using inner tubes, it is just because the tyre fitters were not keen on using them because of the rivets causing wear. However, I have found that bands used on spoked wheels, although no longer available, have been replaced by an adhesive tape so I think I will try this before using inner tubes."

Nigel Melbert later posted an updated saying "last July I was looking for a solution to stop V8 wheels with tubeless tyres losing air pressure without the use of inner tubes. I have tried using an adhesive tape normally used on spoked wheels and have found that after some 3,000k miles the tyres pressure has only dropped by 0.5 lbs. The tape was Wheel Rim Tape Part No. GRT1 and cost £4.95 from MGOC. There was sufficient tape to cover at least ten wheels, with just one wrap round on each wheel. This was much cheaper than inner tubes, which many tyres fitters do not recommend on tubeless tyres."