Hunter tire machine problem

[lxrubin]

I picked up a (very) used Hunter TC3250, and the hub mount and expanding clamps appear to be seized. The hub mount is spring loaded and is supposed to be very high up when no wheel is mounted, but mine is in the completely lowered position. Secondly, and I don't know if it's related, the rim clamps will not expand. Other functions like the bead breaker, and rotation are working well.

Looking at videos, the right pedal activates the bead breaker and rotation (CW & CCW depending if pedal is up or down), this is working well. The left pedal is supposed to expand the clamps, but on mine it rotates the whole machine (also CW and CCW depending if pedal is up or down). The side pedal activates the inflating hose and inflating ring, this is working well too.

I tried to persuade the hub mount and expanding arms, but they aren't budging.

Mine:


Not mine:

 

[39CAMC]

So there is a brake in there that activates when you use the expand pedal, it grabs and stops it and that makes the tulip arms go in or out.

Do you have enough air pressure? They won't work with less than 90psi. Assuming that is OK, I would check the air hoses running to that brake and also any valves in the system.

I will PM you some info.

DaveW

 

[lxrubin]

Thanks Dave!

 

[lxrubin]

I wanted to close the loop for anyone in the future. The machine functions by turning the tulips using either left or right pedals. The left pedal also activates the brake which stops the turning and causes the tulips to expand or contract via a large screw feature. Once it contacts the rim, it will rotate while applying a radial force onto the rim.

After fiddling with the air hose connections and adding oil, the brake works, although intermittently. It needs to be really high pressure (above ~110 psi) to work, and even then it's not reliable, but does work after a few tries. I can 'manually' brake the turn table by using a large crow bar as a last resort.

The hub mount is still seized in the lowered position and I'm continuing to spray it with penetrating oil and hitting it with a small sledge. In the meantime, I'm using wooden spacers to achieve the necessary height.

This machine has a lot of rust everywhere and must have been left outside for a long time which is causing the issues I'm seeing.

 

[pjskot]

Did you ever fix the machine completely?