Can't find tube leak

It figures! My ford 4500 tlb rear tire, 16.9-24 went flat. The tire guy says he won't fix it again. Too many cuts and slits.
I'm broke right now and can't afford a new tire, can't find a used one.
I took off the tire, broke the bead, and removed the brand new tube. No patches on it. filled it up and there is just no leak. I soaped it down, everything looks good.
What should I do short of getting a new tube and or tire?

double check the valve

Slime makes a sealant for inner tubes. Might be woth a shot.

my thoughts, might have been a mite loose and after you took it off you got it tightened.

I didn"t know Slime made a product for inner tubes. If my leak is real small, which it must be. It Might work.

I second the slime idea. I couldn't live without the stuff.

Has anyone successfully used slime for tubes?
I worked all day. Tire leaked, took the tube out, checked and didn't find a leak. Put it all together. Still leaked. Boy I feel like a failure today. I guess the tube under pressure is leaking somewhere. I wonder how the pros find the leak, or do they just replace the tube?

(quoted from post at 13:36:03 12/01/13) Has anyone successfully used slime for tubes?
I worked all day. Tire leaked, took the tube out, checked and didn't find a leak. Put it all together. Still leaked. Boy I feel like a failure today. I guess the tube under pressure is leaking somewhere. I wonder how the pros find the leak, or do they just replace the tube?

Click to expand...

Went through the same thing (on a smaller scale) awhile back. In this case, it was the rear tire on a Snapper riding mower. I could air that tire up, and it would hold almost long enough for me to get the grass cut, and then it was flat. Broke it down, pulled the tube out, and aired it up. NO leaks. I even left the fully inflated tube laying on my work bench for about 36 hours, and still no leaks. Okay, must have been my imagination, so I put it all back together, put it on the mower, and just one hour later, that tire was flat. Went and bought a brand new tube, and it hasn't leaked a bit in two seasons of mowing.

Most inner tubes are made in China these days. Just because it is NEW, does not mean it is good.

When you have the tube out, you can sometimes run a rag around the inside of the tire and find a thorn sticking thru.

One thing to remember is that the Valve Stem is meant to have a Metal cap..NOT a rubber or plastic cap..
Contrary to popular belief, a Shrader Valve is not meant to retain pressure by the Valve Core alone.

Just sayin...

Ron.

I went through a lot of trouble with a front tire tube on one of my tractors. I have found that you really need to submerge the puncture to find a difficult leak. I used a sink since the tire was a 5.50X16, but you could use a cow trough or any still water. It turns out that there was a thorn in my tire that barely protruded from the casing and would puncture the tube when I inflated to about 10 psi, but not before. I took the tube out at least six times before I found the problem.
Also, I mow the lawn at work, and they have a SCAG mower that the boss likes to borrow for his personal projects. One annual project is a property with lots of thorns, which he doesn't hesitate to drive through. Rather than replace the tubes every year, he just loaded them with a bunch of slime. It does work, but acts like a very slow leak. I have to air up the tires every two or three weeks. Of course, there are probably 10+ thorns in each tube by this point. Additionally, sometimes the tires leak faster, depending on how the tire is oriented when sitting. In my experience, slime is more of a stop gap than a fix. Also, service people hate having to clean the slime out of the inside of a tire and rim.

put it in a water trough or pond look for bubbles works for me

I have slime in a tube in a front tractor tire.
Took tire to be fixed, it had many thorns, tire
guy said it would cost too much to put patches on
all the holes. I brought it home, bought some
patches, put them on myself, plus some slime.
It's down to a very slow leak. Pointless to put a
new tube in because thorns have a way of working
their way through the tire after you think you
have them all out. Someday I'll get a new tire.

There is one type of slime for tubes, another for
tubeless. No experience with tubeless.

KEH

Mount it tubeless and then install a real leak sealer. Slime is not a very good one for heavy applications. A rear tire could need 2-3 gallons in it. Your local tire shop should have some if not JD has a good one that is TY16236 One gallon $37.67 and TY15833 five gallon $108.11

I have a 18.4 x 34 tire that was slow leaking and I never could find the hole in the tube even submerged. I mounted it tubeless and put 3 gallons of sealant in it. I can go months before I need to add some air.

I also use it in my skid steer tires. They would leak around the beads so I put a gallon in each tire. Stopped anymore flats. I have pulled nails out and the sealant will plug the hole.

Think I'll need the whole gallon of the tube slime for a 16.9-24?

Blow it up until you think it will explode. You'll find the leak or it will explode!

Yeah slime might be the answer, the old man (my dad) bought a tube for his wheel barrel from tsc and it had green slime in it, when it got a hole in it the green slime came oozing out the hole. He said with a chuckle at least it makes it easy to find the hole!

Check the valve.... beyond that... air it up until you think it's going to blow, then add some more... eventually you'll find the leak. As rubber stretches the hole will grow.

Rod

A gallon of slime is a whole lot cheaper than a new tire. Cut back on the smokes for a week (if that's your vice) and it's paid for.

Frankly I doubt if there's enough difference between the tube and tubeless slime to say so. Probably just marketing.

If you're ever in the hardware store go to the glue area where they sell a product called GOOP. There are 15 different "kinds" of GOOP for all sorts of different applications... Except, it's all EXACTLY THE SAME PRODUCT.