Source for stainless steel valve cores?

[picker77]

After four years carrying calcium chloride solution in my JD 3032E's rear tires, they have both predictably developed minor valve core leaks. I have on hand various brands of nickel plated steel or "unknown-plated" steel spare valve cores, but I'd prefer to use stainless cores for replacements. However, SS cores have proven a bit hard to find locally. Anybody know of an online source for genuine stainless steel (not just plated ferrous metal) valve cores?

 

[Scooby074]

Any good tire shop that works with off road tires should have them. I was given a handfull for free out back in the shop of the local ag tire dealer.

 

[oosik]

My tractor came with SS cores & stems. I can obtain both from my local tire store. I just Googled - "stainless steel valve cores/stems" and came up with Amazon, Grainger & Schrader - there are more on-line that you could order from also.

I had CaCl in my previous tractor and battled the "melting core" situation for 26 years. I'm sure it is due to the CaCl, steel stems and brass cores. Dissimilar metals in a hostile environment.

I had rim guard installed in my new tractor. You might consider something less "aggressive" - windshield washer fluid, RV antifreeze or automotive antifreeze.

Good luck - I know its a PITA.

 

[picker77]

My tractor came with SS cores & stems. I can obtain both from my local tire store. I just Googled - "stainless steel valve cores/stems" and came up with Amazon, Grainger & Schrader - there are more on-line that you could order from also.

I had rim guard installed in my new tractor. You might consider something less "aggressive" - windshield washer fluid, RV antifreeze or automotive antifreeze.

Good luck - I know its a PITA.

Thanks, oosic. I had already checked many of those out online, and when I look closer none have SS bodies. All were either plain brass or plated brass. None that I found were specified as solid SS body material. Even Schrader, the industry big guns for valve cores, specifies in their industrial catalog their "agricultural" version (Schrader #054051000) has a brass body (although it does have a stainless spring), so maybe brass coupled with a SS spring is as good as it gets in corrosion-resistant valve cores. However, it's not that big a deal to jack up the wheel and change them out, so I guess if they last 3-4 years at a time I can live with that. But before I change them out I'll check with local JD and Kubota dealers. Of course, if I end up using Kubota valve cores I'd have to keep that a secret, lol.

 

[oosik]

Believe me - if your end up with Kubota cores or stems - they are only "made for Kubota". And as far as that goes - mine are supposed to be SS??? My experiences with - salt - have left a bitter taste in my mouth. Many seem to have had fairly good luck with it but - IMHO - a lot of the "fairly good luck" is likely due to the quality of their stems & cores. If you can get 3-4 years, its not so bad.

 

[picker77]

Well, finally I quit overthinking this and just replaced the cores, an easy 10-minute job with blocked fronts and a large floor jack under the drawbar, which also allowed me to drain the CaCl liquid down to just below the valve stem level. The dealer had slightly overfilled both of them by an inch or so back when--something I knew but had never bothered to correct. I had a couple of kinds of new cores on hand, one with a black rubber seal and another with red. Rubber seals in the original cores were red, which might or might not be a different rubber compound from black (another overthink, lol?), so I went with red. Whatever. The originals were also made of unplated brass, although I'd bet they all have SS springs inside of them. BTW, the stems are all brass, too. The old cores actually looked fine to the eye, with no visible external corrosion, but they both leaked a few drops per minute, so their valve seats were either getting crud in them or were gradually corroding. The small amount of leakage never really caused any noticeable problem. I always keep SS valve caps with internal rubber gaskets on all the tires, which can easily hold the 18 PSI. The only reason I even discovered the problem was because I was routinely checking tire pressures. The cores weren't leaking when I removed the valve caps, only after I added a few pounds of air did they start to drip, and nothing I could do would make it stop. Obviously that sticky stuff you get from CaCl on your hands can also do a good job of sealing up valve core seats over time, too. At least until you operate them again.

Guess I'll just add changing out valve cores to my bi-annual maintenance list. After all, it's a quick job and the parts cost is practically nothing. And for those who are anti-CaCl, my JD owner's manual recommends using Calcium Chloride. That's not to say other methods aren't also just fine, but JD seems to think CaCl is ok.