Slowly been fixing the '93 Pickup up and discovering the little things that were left by the previous owner. Today I decided to try to get the old spare tire down and look at it. I got under the bed, looked up and saw that he left me a little gift in the form of a severely rusted shovel:





Then as I went to insert the hooked-rod into the bumper hole, I found that he must have broken the loop off that the winch/elevator that the hook goes into. So now the question is, how do I get the spare tire off? Should I just sawzall the area that the arrow is pointing to and let the tire drop down - or is there another easier way to do it?

 

the winch on my 91 was broken, i used a plasma cutter to get it off

 

If the winch is broken, you will have to cut it. No real other way around it, aside from cutting your wheel. But thats sorta pointless heh.

 

Lol - the tire is pretty badly dry-rotted and the wheel looks like it's in pretty bad condition - with all that rust and pitting I'm not sure what the balance would be like.

My coworker gave me a new Goodyear Wrangler AP that was left in the house he just bought, and it just happens to be the right size (go figure). I'm planning on getting a new wheel from the salvage yard and turning that into my spare - so no love lost if I have to cut up the old steel wheel.

So it looks like I need the easiest way to cut the spare down from the winch.

 

I could have sworn I seen a thread on here about somebody deflating the spare, such as pulling the valve stem core, and then squashing the tire with a jack and some blocks. which gave enough slack to pop the hanger out of the rim. I'll look real fast and see what I can find

 

Your lucky you got a shovel. the previous owner of my truck just left me trash.

 

Just grind the head of the bolt till the washer, spring, bracket and tire --I put a ratchet strap on mine before I began cutting-- fall. Takes less than a minute with a sharp cutting wheel.

 

Smart thinking! I would try that!

 

Worked at a discount and had to do that a couple times.
Just pull the valve core or rip the valve out? what ever. the tire will fight you even if there is a pound of air in there.

Although I would of gladly been making sparks every time.

 

I read the same thing...been working (on and off, not really trying hard) on getting mine down. I got all the air out, and popped the bead on mine, but couldn't get it loose by myself unfortunately...now that its warming up i'll probably try again. my tire is shot too its an old severely dry rotted cooper a/t 31"

 

i dont see the tech in this response.

 

You need to look deeper, young Grasshopper...the answer you will find inside...

 

ok i still dont see it.

 

I ended up cutting the chain off with bolt cutters on my 88 4-runner

 

Or that one.



My $.02; just cut it since the winch is not likely salvageable anyway. The tire deflation might save the winch mechanism if it has any life left in it though....that is a good idea.

 

Looking at those pics makes me thankful I live in AZ. (No rust). I'm with Brenjen. It looks like the winch is toast. Ditch the winch, and the spare tire, and do an aux. fuel tank!

 

A few months ago I got a flat on my '91 and tried to lower my spare--even followed the instructions in the glove compartment manual--and man was that comical. I looked like a jackass twisting that long stupid jack handle-contraption in my rear until some guy with a portable air compressor took pity on me and gave me enough air to get home. I'm going to spray the winch with WD40 and whack it with a hammer every day for a month and see what happens. After that its bolt cutter time.

 

I've used another pickup and a piece of chain on the trial before :o) works great.

 

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, Cleveland is hard on trucks - but I'm not quite sure how it got this bad. My '97 Corolla has nowhere near as much rust.

Picked up an air cutter today and some metal cutting discs. I'll try to cut the bolt/washer (which I assume is that rusty, amorphous blob in the center) and see if I can drop the tire that way.

Just out of curiosity, how would I go about pulling the valve stem core with the wheel oriented the way it is such that the valve stem facing upward?

 

I just took down my spare wheel on Saturday. I put the metal handle device together and hooked it onto the spare wheel carrier and then hit it with a 10lb sledge a few times. Luckily for me I was able to break it loose.

At first I tried to deflate the tire and use a jack to get some slack on the SWC and that did not work for me.

One other option would be to take the bed off and use bolt cutters to cut the chain.