PromptCritical 

I'm going to give tubeless tires a try, but I'm not wild about the sticky tire sealant.

I bought a wheel on eBay for a great price and there is dried on sealant all over the rim. So far, it has resisted soap & water, acetone, WD-40 and a degreaser. Anyone know of a magic solvent to remove it? Other than the dried sealant, the wheel is in great shape, so I don't want to use an abrasive material and scratch the rim.

alcjphil

How about water?

FBinNY 

Toluene is a common solvent for rubber based compounds. If that's what was in the solution, commercial paint thinner should help remove it. In any case, as you try stuff, be aware to NOT USE any caustics like lye, oven cleaner, etc, since these will attack aluminum rims.

PromptCritical 

Thanks!

KerryIrons

Toluene should work, but might not be readily available. I have found xylene at my local hardware store, and its solvent power is close to toluene (because it is close in chemical structure).

PromptCritical 

Thanks. Yeah, I'm in California and it doesn't seem to be available here. I'll try to find that.

Koyote

Tubeless tire sealant is generally water-soluble. Are you sure that's what you're dealing with?

PromptCritical 

Well, the wheel came from eBay, so I can't be sure. Good point though.

Eric F 

I've found that a moderately-stiff dry brush works pretty well, in most cases. I haven't yet found a situation where I've needed to resort to solvents. Maybe I've been lucky.

biker128pedal

I saw on the web so it must be true to use a natural latex eraser for adhesive removal. I have not tried it yet. Demo showed it removing from a tire. May work on the rim bead.

Searched with. latex adhesive eraser
https://a.co/d/7aacQ7f

grumpus

Ammonia solution as used for domestic cleaning is supposed to be the magical elixir for this, I've never tried it myself.

jgwilliams

That hasn't been my experience. Water works well enough before the sealant has set, but I've had a tough time getting dried sealant off the frame of my mountain bike. I know now to deal with it immediately if I've had a puncture - although, of course, one doesn't necessarily realise.

Camilo

Ask the seller

KerryIrons

This is generally correct. Once the sealant has dried, it's like latex paint that has dried. It was water miscible when it was liquid, but no longer once it's dried out. Or at least it will take a LONG soak in water to soften/disperse.

PromptCritical 

This sounds right. I think I'm going to put the wheel on a rim brake bike and see if that scrubs it off.

FBinNY 

Agreed, and this is an excellent analogy. The OP would be well served by a visit to a hardware store, looking for a (dried) latex paint stripper. There are plenty, so odds are he'll find something both affordable and effective.store

PromptCritical 

Another nooob question.

I put a tubeless valve stem in the rim last night and installed a tire. I wasn't entirely clear about how the valve should be installed (after watching 4 YouTube videos - none of which actually showed the valve and seals.....), so I pumped up the tire without sealant to see what would happen, as I didn't want to deal with the mess if I put in the valve stem incorrectly. The tire seated and pumped up to 95#. It seemed to hold pressure, but within a hour or so was completely flat.

Anyone hazard a guess as to whether the problem was the valve stem installation or the lack of sealant?

Also, anyone have any favorite stems?

FBinNY 

I can say with some confidence that it was either or both. Unless it bled out under the rim strip.

Only you know how diligent you were installing the valve, but since it held for a while, it's fairly safe to assume that any leak there would have been sealed. Likewise the bead. Also, make sure the rim strip is pressed down all the way around.

But, you'll never know until you add rhe sealant.

Russ Roth

If you newly taped it I highly recommend installing a tube before going tubeless to press the tape into place. No matter how much I try to manipulate the tape and stretch it to make it sit flat in the rim, it never fully seems to do so and I can often feel air between the two layers of tape. A tube inflated to 80-90psi usually gets everything flat, take it for a spin around the block if you're concerned the job isn't good enough. Then toss in a valve stem and inflate. The rim its self can be damaged if the tape isn't properly seated. Without sealant, the best I've had just sitting was about 6 hours but that was a mtb and only inflated to 25psi so not a lot of pressure. Any of the treks I built that came tubeless the tires didn't hold for more than an hour or two, air under pressure will find the tiniest of imperfections to leak out, the sealant really matters.

PromptCritical 

HaHaHa - perfect answer!

PromptCritical 

Thanks - appreciate the detail!