D-17 Rear tractor wheel Ames, Iowa

If the 'two small holes' are in the rim, that can be solved, however, if that tire has a tube (and I believe it does) then the 2-hour leak you're dealing with a bit more than a simple answer.  First thing I'd do, is take a spray-bottle of soapy water and hose it down to see where the leak IS.

If it were ME buying it, I'd plan on airing it up, driving it on a trailer, and trailering it home, air it up to offload, then worry about the tire situation once it's home... that's the way I've done it in the past, anyway.

There are some combine wheels with the same bolt pattern. Deere 4400 and others? If the tires are beyond using, you will get usable tires going that route. The combine yards at Wall Lake or Audubon would have some. 

Colfax tractor salvage should be a likely source. May take you half a day of hunting to find the rim though. They probably don't have that indexed.

Gerald J.

Take a sack lunch if you go to Colfax... and probably a tape measure, and a GPS... so you can find your way back to the one you think is right...

For repairing, I've found that if the stem area is rotted (usually is), and I can weld in a piece of filler, I'll rotate the tire and tube, and drill a stem hole somewhere else along the rim, where there's plenty of thick metal, and avoid trying to drill it into your patched area.

I repaired one front on my D17, did exactly that.  I found an old car wheel that had a perfect section to match.  I torched a suitable chunk out of same size, then cut the ends clean with an abrasive chop saw, finished it with a 4" grinder... then used the segment to score a line into the rim around the hole.  Used a plasma to rough cut the hole, then finished with a file, to make the insert piece fit.  I tacked it together, made sure I liked it, then seamed it shut with the MIG.... built it up just a hair, cleaned it with a die grinder, then flapper wheel... can't see it at all.


Edited by DaveKamp - 04 Jul 2010 at 11:58pm

That's not nearly the challenge of welding a ships hull upside down under water that Jim Howe can do, but he does beautiful work for ordinary welding like a rim. An artist.

Gerald J.