Punctures are a messy thing to experience in an automobile, be it on the move or when you walk out of the door to go to work and a flat tyre greets you first thing in the morning. With tubeless tyres, punctures do happen but if you are one of the do-it-yourself types you do not need to fret and fume. Just get the puncture kit and repair the tyre in a few easy steps, with due apologies to the local tyre Anna. Aspi Bhathena shows you how.

For tubeless tyre users a tyre repair kit (made by Unipatch Rubber Ltd) is essential. The kit consists of (1) Spiral cement tool; (2) T-shaped handle tool; (3) Needle for permacure plug; (4) Allen key; (5) Omni vulcanizing fluid and (6) Permacure plugs. And all of these come packed in a separate leather pouch. This kit is available at all Goodyear tyre shops.

STEP 1: On a tubeless tyre, air retention in case of a puncture is of a very high order. It doesn't deflate immediately as in the case of a tubed tyre. Our test tyre had a nail in it but still was inflated. Identify such areas to get going on repair work.	STEP 2: Once you have located and marked the tear on the tyre, pull out the offending nail or foreign object. Then determine the direction of the tear by carefully working the tip of the spiral tool. Do take care to ensure you do not aggravate the tear.	STEP 3: It will pay to use a bit of the vulcanizing fluid at the visible entry point of the abrasion. One will have to cement the injury thoroughly using the spiral tool with the vulcanizing fluid using a clockwise rotating motion. Repeat the process at least thrice.

STEP 4: Insert the Permacure rubber plug (after removing the blue poly cover) in the eye of the needle which needs to be inserted in the T-shaped tool for better leverage. Also a slight application of the vulcanizing fluid is suggested here. Take care that you do not dip the Permacure into cement can or tube. Unlike vulcanizing of tubes which requires a heat press and some filing, no such bothers here.	STEP 5: Place the tip of the needle in line with the open abrasion and then push the Permacure plug into the tyre until about 25 per cent of its length remains above the tread surface. See that the plug is right through and through and then pull out the needle from the tyre. Let it set and seal for about five minutes and then inflate the tyre - to manufacturer recommendation - and inspect the repair for more leaks.	STEP 6: Once inflated you can snip off the visible portion of the Permacure plug by a pair of scissors. In case the puncture is big and the Permacure plug has not completely sealed it, simply insert a second Permacure plug at the point of air seepage. This though will only be needed if the abrasion is large. Simple logical thought process will see you through this entire sequence.

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