Tire pressures, well thats one I don't give a rats A$$ about the door sticker on! In all the years I've had cars and taken care of them I've never seen a car in the radial tire era that would not eat its tires alive if pressured to the sticker specs! Could be me, likely is. I have found that 35 psi at all four corners of the Altima keep it's 195/65/15's alive the longest. I'm still worjing on the XJ, it looks like about 32 rear and 35 front, but jury is still deliberating. It has 235/70/15 in tires on 8" Jeep canyon wheels. The Dakota is being run at 35 psi, but I don't know if that is correct, don't much car on it as the tires are fairly junky anyway and I'm just wiating for the tread to get a little thinner. The American I run about 30 pis in the 255/60/15 rears and about 32 in the fronts, seems to be about right. The stockers on the newer cars all seem to me to be aimed at ride comfort, period. On these windy roads running that presure usually means loosing the tread on the outer edges of the tires in no time flat... -- Mark Price Morgantown, WV 1969 AMC Rambler, 4.0L, EFI, T-5 " I was different before people dared to be different" -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: "John Elle" <johnelle@xxxxxxxxx> > NSU Prinze if that is spelled correctly, was seen in Rochester N.Y. at the > time, a fellow I worked with owned one, the Rotary powered roadster or coupe > (don't remember) was seen at the show room for NSU where the 4 door was > purchased from. The web sites referred to as "RESEARCH I am sure would have > more information as to what they were. What I remember most was seeing a > carburetor on what appeared to be a transaxle and had it explained that it > was a rotary engine (what ever that was at the time). Speaking of Rochester > and applications of Rust Mort I do not know of any place that had more rusty > cars than Rochester, although Cleveland gets bloody close and not all cars > in Arizona came from Arizona, but those that did still have original factory > paint on the under side and the axles. As Rust Mort has the viscosity of > water rather than wall board paste I find it a very useful product and > prefer using it to the thicker and gooier alternatives but that is just me I > guess. That way when something has been dealt with I can then finish things > off the way I want them finished off with other products. For those of you > who have seen the 1980 AMX Front clip project Rust Mort was used extensively > to retard or eliminate the damage caused to the car that was not replaced by > local rust free sheet metal. But battery boxes still rust as well as area > left sitting in standing water does too. The biggest problem that I > observed with the Corvair was some mechanic or owner inflating all of the > tires equally to something in the order of 32# or so. The car became evil > when driven and would oversteer with the slightest provocation such as a dog > peed on the tire. > > The recommended tire pressure was in the order of 18 to 20# in the front and > something on the order of 32ish pounds on the rear and when done correctly > handled quite well thank you. Beetles had the same problem, but Beetle > owners programmed them selves to keep tire pressure correct. Chevy owners > were programmed to ignore all recommended service idiosyncrasies and leave > routine maintenance to the whims of others, at least that is what it was > that I observed at the times. Personally I think the swing axle and the > totally independent later versions handled pretty much the same IF the tires > were inflated correctly. I drove and worked on a number of Corvairs at the > time and they drove horribly until the tire pressure was jockeyed around to > where it belonged. Obligatory AMC content, the Gremlin was just the > opposite, it would plow through corners like a berserk '47 DeSoto. As this > was the day of the load range B bias belted tires, using inflation pressures > recommended to tire sizes and the weight carried, the front tires would work > well at about 30#, the back ones at about 20# and if you had a good set of > shocks you could warp it through the twisties with the best of them. I used > to regularly dice it out with a fellow who had a TR6 and used to annoy the > h$#% out of him on the tight roads but the pedestrian 232 was not up to > keeping up with him when the road straightened out. I lost the Gremlin > though when a fellow ran a red light and hit the car just forward of the > front wheels. It swayed the unibody about 5 inches out line but I drove it > 30 miles home with the help of a few bungee cords attached extraneous loose > sheet metal somewhat affixed to the car. As far as tire balance goes, yes > the weight is added to the light side of the tire. > > > > As far as the Load Range B recommended inflation pressure charts, I have > found nothing that seems to relay the same information as applied to current > radial tires and their recommendation. Just yesterday I had the resident > know it all tell me that the factory recommended 32 # pressure was too high > on a tire that has a do not exceed 44# pressure warning on the sidewall and > no other recommendations anywhere as to what the correct pressure should be. > With all of the warnings on do not under inflate your tires but no > guidelines as to what they should be initially when cold do we depend on the > 1. Side wall recommendation of do not exceed, 2 the 10 year old sticker in > the front door jam that was printed in a different tire era, or 3 the advise > of the resident know it all that has been doing this for 20 years (which in > many cases is a bit scary to think of and whose primary objective was to let > him install a new set of struts)? He never did spot that I had the car > overloaded at the time and the rear axle was sitting on the bump stops. Talk > about NASCAR coil binding theory! This thing drove like a 2 ton go kart. > > > > Have a happy week end. > > John. > > > > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > http://www.amc-list.com/pipermail/amc-list/attachments/20070922/5045d501/attachm > ent.htm > _______________________________________________ > Amc-list mailing list > Amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx > http://www.amc-list.com/mailman/listinfo/amc-list _______________________________________________ Amc-list mailing list Amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.amc-list.com/mailman/listinfo/amc-list