Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

To determine if a 55 or 56 Packard or clipper wheel has a bead stamped into the wheel:

Wheel cover NOT removed:
Reach one finger BEHIND the wheel, between the wheel and the drum, and feel for the sloping angle part of the wheel that slopes toward the center of the wheel. Drag your finger toward the outside rim of the wheel until the slope meets the tire bead seat. Directly at the vertex of the slope and the tire bead seat will be an indentation very easy to feel with one finger. (if such a safety bead exists).

Wheel cover REMOVED:

Assume the valve stem is at the 6'oclock position.
Place a finger tip on the wheel directly next to the valve stem. About 1/8 inch lower than the valve stem there should be a radial indentation. (if a bead exists).

EDIT: the 54 Owners Manual schematic IS a good reference for location of the bead after all. See post #21:
https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=5795&forum=1&post_id=62075#forumpost62075

I have eleven 56 Jr. wheels here. NO Sr. wheels. Only 10 are accesible for inspection. 3hree of the wheels have the safety bead. 7even do not.

Wheel with safety bead weighs 19.5 pounds. Wheel withOUT safety bead weighs 19.0 pounds. I accept the 1/2 pound difference as negligable and accept that both wheels weigh the same.

NOTE: that the Parts Catalouge indicates different part numbers for 55 wheels than 56 wheels, Jr or Sr.

I'm not able to inspect any of my '56s, at present, but having personally assisted with installing a set of radial tires on my '56 Caribbean Hardtop, I can say with certainty that none of the five wheels had a safety bead seat.

Also, trying to manually break the tire bead from the rim of the worn-out (original?) spare in the trunk of one my '56 Patricians was so difficult, that I wondered if it was a safety rim, but it turned out the rubber had just fused itself to the rim after so many decades. It was not a safety rim.

BH. I have both a large 1930's hand powered bead breaker and a air powered 1940's Mays Bro's bead breaker/ tire changer. The old 50's and even on up into the 60's tires were Extremely difficult to break the beads on. I did many during the mid 1970's. The old 50's tires were the worst. There are a few tricks to it tho.

The modern radials damned near fall off of the rim with even just the hand operated bead breaker.

I laugh and often just walk away in disgust when i here so many so-called mechanics say they never demounted a tyre themselves. Especial the modern radials are so damned ez.
With even just a cheap modern bead breaker the tyres can be knocked off of the rim and a new one put back on faster than they can be loaded in a truck and transported backwards and forwards to the tire store. But those old 50's and 60's tires are real bear.

I don't have a bead breaker of any kind, here at home - except for some bumper jacks. The foot of those jacks is designed to fit the curve of the rim for the purpose of bead breaking - in conjunction with the weight of the vehicle.

However, I wasn't even using one of those jacks. I was just trying to pound it off, using a hammer and bar, with the tire and wheel laid flat on the driveway - the way my dad would have, decades ago. As that proved futile, my dad pulled out a length of 2x12, set it on the tire (close to, but not touching the rim), forming a ramp, and had me slowly drive the Packard up the board. I had to back down, rotate the tire, and repeat the process several times, but it worked like a charm. Of course, that ruined the tire, but we weren't trying to salvage it.

Even if we had access to a tire machine that day, it would have chewed the decades old rubber off the bead, right down to the wire - as was the case with the old tires on the Carib.

I can only imagine how much more difficult it would have been to demount those tires if they were on safety rims.

That the radials literally fall off the rim with a manual breaker is another reason for the safety beads. Yet, for all the talk (and not just here) about the alleged problem with using radial tires on the original, non-safety rims, It's funny that no one is marketing safety rims for these cars. Makes me wonder if it's just more hype to support the sale of over-priced, reproduction, bias-ply tires made "from the original molds" (but with an inferior carcass).

Back when I had my first few cars in the 50s and 60s and didn't have any extra nickels to rub together, I was always looking for that bargain $2.00 used tire that had good tread. I changed plenty of them, installed boots over sidewall gashes, pinched inner tubes had the valve stem fall back inside on installation, and all those annoyances. I used the bumper jack to break the bead with the weight of the car, and used 3 hefty tire irons. Would I do it again today? I still pack an inner tube repair kit in the 34, but not unless I had no alternatives, it can be a bear!!

When i indicated that the modern radials nearly fall off of the rim with the bead breaker tool i was not refering to 'vintage' rims wheather safety bead or not. Of course anything modern to me is 1980 or newer. Even my 2001 Dodge ram 1500 with the expensive chromed OEM FACTORY steel wheels and 225-75 R16 LT tires take nearly no effort to break the bead from the wheel. DItto for the 89 Caprice, 88 Ranger, and several others.
The over-the-counter radials modern radials i have on my Executive wheels with no safety bead are no easier and no more difficult to break the bead on than the 2001 Dodge Ram wheels.

About the only time i use the power air operated bead breaker/tire changer is if i have more than 2 to do. The power changer requires some set up time because i don't have space to leave it set up permanantly. Otherwise i just use the hand operated bead breaker and a couple of tire spoons and a 2 pound hammer.

here are pics of my rims after cleaning and repairing some pits. i think it looks like mine had the safety bead.

link to rims

Looks like a safety bead to me. So i wonder what changed with the 1956 year. Did they use different wheels when they switched from lug bolts to lug nuts in 56? Do the 56 wheels have the locating pin holes still?