Morris Minor Owners Club

myth has it that you should never fit tubless tyre ,the drivers handbook tell you how to repair your tubsless tyre.A new tyre has ribbing on the inside and are not designed to take a tube.If the wheels are in good order i can't see a problem with them and I personally over the last 40 years have never had a problem with them.We used to repair them wiyj a roun piece of rubber but now the tyre comes off and a mushroom shapped plug is used...what is the general opinion? best regards glyn 57 years old but still racing

well i do not put tubes in, and have not had a problem

The inner faces of tubeless tyres aren't finished as well as the old-type, unfortunately.

If you fit tubes to tubeless tyres the tubes can chafe against the inside of the tyre, eventually rubbing through leaving you with a sudden deflation. There is no warning that this will happen, it just does.

It's quite a shock when it happens at 60mph on the motorway... I speak from experience.

Phyllis now runs on tubeless tyres all round - and I have no problems with leaks. If the rims are in good condition, they should stand it.

the reason i started this thread because i read it on another forum never to use tubless tyres,so i did a bit of research with our tyre supplier they said youd have a job finding a tubed tyre as i said i was repairing tubless on a moggie in the 60's....glyn

Actually I think that only the early minors needed tubes. Series II and 1000's all were tubless.

Hello Glyn,

to add to Roger's post, early wheels (not just Minor) were riveted together rather than welded so are likely to leak.
What are you supposed to do if you have wire wheels, the majority of those need tubes.

Alec

We have discussed this many times before. Yes, the Minor wheel rims, all of them, were not designed for tubeless tyres as they do not have the wells into which the tyre walls should fit in order to prevent the tyre
deflating instantly if the tyrewall hits a kerb etc. But, like most of us I have been using tubeless for many many years with no problems whatsoever and i would suggest that tubeless are inherently safer as,unlike a tubed wheel, they will not deflate instantly if a nail pierces the tyre.

Yup, tubeless have the whole 'self healing' thing going for them.
Mine do seem to lose air but were talking maybe 10psi over 6 months or more.
I'm sure I've seen tubeless rims (with the extra ridge/dip) for a Minor but maybe these were aftermarket upgrades.

I agree with you all but,they were at the time designed for tubless as if you look in your original handbook that came with the car,one of mine is 1959 and they show you the tubless tyre there and how to repair it and i remember them in the dealership with tubless tyres.Yes you got no choise with wire wheels...regards glyn

Hello Glyn,

not strictly true, which is why I said some wire wheels. Modern wire wheels have the spoke nipples sealed with what looks like some sort of silicone sealant, and are designed to run tubeless tyres.

Alec

must say ,not seen them I was more concerned though on some other forum it says you should never use tublees tyres as the wheels wer'nt designed for them....glyn

That ,of course, is correct, the minor wheels were NEVER designed for tubeless tyres it just happened that they were optional extras from the factory during the last couple of years of production. I think that it was only later in the 'tubeless' story that it was realised that the rims should have a profile which had wells into which the tyre walls should sit in order to make them much less liable to sudden deflation. Every modern cars wheels have these wells built in. I will, nevertheless never fit inner
tubes on my Minors.