2140 Wheel Paint

Sounded like today might be the last nice day, nice enough for a little painting anyway. Those rust patches on the rear wheels of the John Deere 2140 always caught my eye and I had plans to do something about it. The valve stems had leaked a bit of calcium chloride over the past 36 years. For those not aware, calcium chloride is added to the rear tires of a tractor for weight to increase traction. It is cheap and effective but the downside is, extreme corrosive rust anywhere this stuff contacts metal.

I found a half decent used valve stem core housing on an old tractor tube and installed it. Seemed to seal up the leak. A few minutes work with the sand blaster got rid of the surface rust. Then a can of rustoleum yellow soon had the wheels looking 100% better. A little steel wool work cleaned up the over spray on the tires that I had been too lazy to mask. Unfortunately I see now the other tire also leaks chloride at the valve stem so I need to remove and replace that one. Those tires are so full of fluid that it is impossible to remove the valve core housing without the chloride spraying out as I found on the first tire. Good thing the shed has a dirt floor to soak up those spills.