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CTIS wheel valve adventure......

MO MV man

New member
397
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0
Location
Imperial, MO
Hello all,
I've been flat ecstatic that my CTIS has behaved perfectly since I got the truck from GL until the other day when the galled threads of a past "repair" (in military hands) on the big brass nut allowed the valve to pop loose and I ended up with a "Run Flat" light and LOADS of escaping air.
I pulled over at the next parking lot and assessed the situation.
I was able to coax the nut back onto the last remaining usable thread on the wheel valve and limp the beast home.
The tire NEVER lost pressure because the tire side of my wheel valve was TIGHT.

Since the wheel valve body was unsalvageable due to the annihilated threads, I mail ordered a brand new wheel valve from a fantastic vendor (super nice folks).
It was new-in-the-box, looked awesome and ready to go.

Installed it and I started losing a LOT of tire pressure.
Went from 70PSI Sat. afternoon to 46PSI Sunday morning.
I used a mess of soapy water looking for leaks.
None to be found. Had to be internal.

It was the weekend and, being the working class stiff I am, Sunday afternoon was "it" for free time for the next few/several days and I didn't want to play phone tag and USPS tag with getting another........ so I tore into the NEW wheel valve.
Piece of cake.....they are silly simple. Pics show what I found.

Good heavens......
1. The steel center seat was rusted and corroded beyond repair.
2. The diaphragm was eroded due to the rust on the seat.
3. A LOT of corrosion on the cover that sits atop the diaphragm (I sanded it with emery cloth on a flat board).

SO I pulled the diaphragm and seat from my old wheel valve (which both looked PERFECT inside, by the way.....had to be recently replaced).

It's been six hours now and I have only registered a 1 PSI pressure drop but I can attribute that to temp change-it's cool outside now.
When I took the 70PSI reading, it was about 85 and the sun had heated the tire up.

I will contact the vendor tomorrow and get this all ironed out.
The problem for them is they just can't look at or glance inside a hole to assess condition.
You have to take the thing totally apart to see the seat and diaphragm condition. Whew.

I hate to spread fear but man, how many of these boogered up NEW wheel valves are in circulation?
Mine has a 2008 production date on the package so it's not "OLD", time-wise.

Spend that sort of money with the intentions of what should be a remove and replace repair only resulting in a full-on rebuild anyway?
Next time I will probably buy a used valve with good threads and throw a kit at it.
 

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MO MV man

New member
397
4
0
Location
Imperial, MO
The kits are really cheap.
Erik's lists them for $14 plus shipping, for example.
But he and many other vendors don't carry the complete valves.

I shopped around a LOT and saw some on Ebay but wasn't comfortable with an unfamiliar vendor.

So I went with one I was very comfortable with.

$125 plus shipping for a brand new Spicer wheel valve.

As I said before, I HAD to get a replacement center housing portion due to the destroyed threads on mine.
Hindsight, I would have gotten a nice used one (with excellent threads) and rebuilt it.
 
Last edited:

MO MV man

New member
397
4
0
Location
Imperial, MO
CORRECTION: Erik's is $16.75 per kit plus shipping.

The kits do NOT include a replacement valve seat.
So if your seat is corroded to bits (like my NEW one), you'll have to find another seat somewhere.
 

MO MV man

New member
397
4
0
Location
Imperial, MO
Update.....

I checked the tire pressures this morning and ALL were within 1.5psi of each other.
SUCCESS!

I contacted the vendor and they were VERY interested in my findings.
So I forwarded the pictures of what I found along with the steps I took to rectify the situation.
In no time, they responded and credited me for the valve.

Hopefully my CTIS will be back to it's old reliable self again. :)
 
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