Be prepared to have someone hold the inside portion of the broken tractor tire
valve stem with a set of vice grips or long reach pliers.
Had AD3 Morris not noticed the leaky
valve stem cover on preflight, the pilot in command could have found himself executing loss of directional control during take off or landing procedures from NATOPS.
Small pressure sensors attached to each tire's
valve stem measure and transmit tire pressure and temperature to a monitoring unit that receives the data when it is within 25-50 feet.
Start by cutting off the old
valve stem with a side cutters or utility knife.
However, the
valve stem position is not easily measurable.
Many sites exercise an "out of sight, out of mind" approach to stem nut maintenance, which can lead to unexpected failure of a motor-operated
valve stem nut.
It ensures that any downstream actuators for controlling process valves cannot be accidentally exposed to dangerous over-pressures that could be high enough to shear a
valve stem or cause other damage.
Another maintainer placed the inflation adapter on the
valve stem of the H-60 tire.
I turned the tire/wheel assembly so the
valve stem was at the top, and then drilled the hole in the center tread of the tire itself.