Tire valve question

[eagleguy]

Six months ago I purchased 4 new tires from Pep Boys for my 86 T Type and they were mounted on GNX style Riken America rims. Today I noticed that my vehicle which has new Bilstein shocks was riding quite hard. When I went to check the tire pressure for the first time as I do not use the vehicle much I noticed that I cannot get an air pressure reading from the valves on any tire. I checked the air pressure gauge on another cars tire and it worked fine and even used a different style gauge with the same results. What gives? The valves are the original hard chromed ones to match the rims not rubber.
Are Bilstein shocks temperature sensitive? I am not liking the ride.

 

[turbo87regal]

Most likely the ride issue you mentioned is due to the shock change and not tires or pressures if you did not notice your issue right after changing the tires. Some people love the Bilsteins and some hate them because of the stiffer ride. I put Bilsteins on my Buick to stiffen up the ride a bit witch they did and notice no difference between first starting out and driving for a while however I also have some Bilsteins on my 92 Mustang and those are very stiff for about the first mile or two then they seem to ease up a bit. It all comes down to preference since the guy I got my shocks from hated them and I am happy with them. Do you have any other modifications done to your suspension like control arms with urethane or spherical bushings? since those will most likely dramatically amplify the stiffness of the shocks. As far as stems go I have been working for a major tire chain store for the past 22 years and have come across some fixed/hard stems where you will have to push the gauge on very hard to get a reading or to put air in using a air chuck so you could try using more pressure against the stem with the gauge to see if that's it. Old tire gauges can sometimes give you this problem too so that's something to consider if both gauges you tried were old and not used much. Easy way for you to figure it out if it's the stems or gauge for sure would be for you to stop by Pep Boys and have them try with one of their gauges to see what happens and go from there.

 

[eagleguy]

Turns out the small rubber gasket in each valve cap came off and imbedded itself in the valve stem on all 4 tires. What are the odds of that happening again? As far as the shocks, the Bilsteins did seem stiff when first installed but now seem a lot harder. Nothing suspension wise was changed. I wondering if I should just swap them out for some KYB's.

 

[eagleguy]

Turns out the small rubber gasket in each valve cap came off and imbedded itself in the valve stem on all 4 tires. What are the odds of that happening again? As far as the shocks, the Bilsteins did seem stiff when first installed but now seem a lot harder. Nothing suspension wise was changed. I wondering if I should just swap them out for some KYB's.

 

[turbo87regal]

I have only seen that on a couple occasions over the years and it is very uncommon especially on all 4 wheels at one time but at least you got it figured out. You could try to unbolt the lower part of each shock and try to manually push them up to see if one is seized. This is also very uncommon especially with a good quality shock but it's worth checking. If you end up changing to KYB's I would be interested in the front Bilsteins should you be looking to sell them.