Not totally bike related

[Sly_guy]

Ok, so this question is actually relating to my car... I could lie, and say it's about the bike, but I'm not that kinda guy !

anyway!,

Noticed one of my tires was looking a bit flat the other day, so took the car down to the petrol station to put some air in... Long and the short of it, one of the valves is leaking air, and is currently only being stopped by the dust cap...

Now, simple I thought, these valves are universal across most push bikes and every motorbike / car I've ever seen, so I'll just pop to my local repco to grab a "Valve tightening tool"...

When I go in to the store and ask for said tool... The monkey behind the counter gives me the most gormless what the feck are you on about look... so, I take the time to explain, the leaking air, and that fact that there are these tools that exist to tighten the valve on the inside, that go either side of the pressy down bit and then you rotate !..
10 minutes later, he comes back with the manager, and gets me to explain ALL again... after checking against countless screens he eventually exclaims "ahhh, yeah, I think I know what you mean" he says, nope, "don't have them in. I can probably get you one... it'll might be about a week, and they're $45".

Now, can some one please confirm I'm not imagining things... but they do actually exist... I've used one, my dads, on many occasions, but MANY years ago. and also that they do not need to be made of solid gold and cost $45.00 ???


Can anyone point me in the direction of a not totally half arsed place to get something along these lines.. I'm also after a compresser, you know the kind where you plug in to the car ciggie lighter.. (I had one in my hand at Repco, but I put it back in disgust after the above debacle!)


Cheers.. :)

(See I could have lied and said it was all bike related !)

[spookytooth]

for the valve thingy you could try a tire shop.My old man has one as well and it's not made of gold,unless gold rusts these days

[Virago]

Yep, can help.

Years ago there were special (metal) dust-caps available, that had a slotted end for removing / tightening the schrader valve cores.

I've got a few here (see attached photo). They are off an old pneumatic fire alarm system.

PM me your address details, I'll chuck one in the mail to you.

[laserracer]

got mine at repco dont go ask the monkey behind the counter, ya have to go hunting they will be with the tyre pressure gauges i think it was like $7:yes:

[BASS-TREBLE]

Go to a tyre shop, tell them that your valve stem is leaking and ask if it is possible to replace it for free.
A leaking valve is nothing new to them. As time moves on the rubber in the valve stem dries out and cracks.

If not, there are caps that have the tool on the top of them, truck tubes have them the most but every tyre shop has caps on their tyre machines, just be polite and ask.

Yes the valves are universal. Cars, bikes, trucks, tractors etc. All the same appart from big bulldozers.

[Sly_guy]

Cheers guys,

Appreciate the advice and sanity check ! :)..

On the compressor front, is repco pretty much the best / cheapest (i'm a tightarse!) place ?

[Badjelly]

Supercheap Auto are good, in my experience, if you can stand the smell of cheap vinyl and the general ambience.

I have a tool that incorporates an extractor as you describe, plus several fittings for cleaning up threads. It's galvanised and it's very hard to see how it could cost $45.

[dhunt]

Your local motobike shop should stock them as well. At least mine does.

Supercheap would probably be cheaper to buy a compressor (or possibly Bunnings). Supercheap ones come with 1/2" fittings (more common in Oz??) rather the more common 1/4" fittings here if that's a concern.