Triple Pickle
Senior Member
I definitely remember those!
Tire balancing question
- Thread starter Triple Pickle
- Start date
I had been in the tire biz for over 20 years.
Adding wieghts and not removing the old is wrong.
How did they mount the rim on their balancer?
Center cone? That is also not the best way to spin them.
Any type of rally wheel or aftermarket wheel use the " fingers" at the bolt holes.
Why? It is a known fact the center register in styled steel wheels or rally wheels is not perfect and using just a cone through the center for balancing can give a false readiing.
Using the fingers through bolt holes simulates being mounted on the car, and is much more accurate.
Hope this helps.
Adding wieghts and not removing the old is wrong.
How did they mount the rim on their balancer?
Center cone? That is also not the best way to spin them.
Any type of rally wheel or aftermarket wheel use the " fingers" at the bolt holes.
Why? It is a known fact the center register in styled steel wheels or rally wheels is not perfect and using just a cone through the center for balancing can give a false readiing.
Using the fingers through bolt holes simulates being mounted on the car, and is much more accurate.
Hope this helps.
Triple Pickle
Senior Member
Refer to post #31 in this thread for the solution.
70bigblockdodge
Old Man with a Hat
No, no, no, go look at the chart and figure out what you or your car did wrong. It's not the tire.
No better feeling than riding on brand new tires. This quickly fades to I hope they don't wear out fast and don't do anything weird.
No, no, no, no it was the Uniroyals. You could replace them with just about anything and the broken belt issues would disappear. See how that works?
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70bigblockdodge
Old Man with a Hat
Oh hell that one is not bad. When they start to pull the tread apart is when you need to slow down. LOL
The ones on the front would almost jerk the wheel out of your hand. The rear ones would do the Wah Watusi. They seemed to separate where the belt ends meet.
On-the-car spin balancers can be dangerous. We had a guy in the shop get killed by one back in the early 70's, when the balance head came loose from the wheel. Also, some FWD cars (and even a few RWD ones) could damage the differential spinning just that one tire.
Just Carbs
Well-Known Member
It's a scary set up. I use the thing to spin the tire up and see what's going on, but I wouldn't put the balancing head on it. I just don't have the stupids to do that.
Yup, after seeing shrapnel from that balancer go up through the guys head and killing him, No way I was going to use one after that!
Moparx
New Member
Those wheels are not hub-centric, and are therefore hard to balance correctly. Even the "cones with the 5 fingers" are not very accurate, but are better than trying to balance with the regular cones. Just my opinion. Your mileage will vary.
68yourker
New Member
When I was younger, I worked for Goodyear (please don't hold that against me) and those type of wheels were always a problem. As stated earlier, the back side doesn't locate the wheel on the car, it is the lug nuts and studs. Many shops will simply use the cone on the front of the wheel, which is just a hole for the center cap, not the center of the wheel. When a wheel is place on the balancer, the goal is to mount it in a fashion similar to how it is on the vehicle. Modern wheels have a VERY tight fit on the back side with the hub-try taking off a wheel in the salt belt, and you will find it rusted in place (never happened to those wheels). The fact that there wasn't a vibration until the tire replacement is the key. It may not be a balance problem but a combination of coning (centering problem), or as was mentioned earlier, a variation in the stiffness of the side wall, which causes the assembly to roll like a football when placed under a load. It may look perfectly round, but due to the sidewall wall overlapping, can cause the tire to hop when put under a load. Envision a foot ball with a hole in the center of it. That is placed on the balancer, and spun. Corrective weights placed on to it. Then put it back on the car, and a drive will result in a vibration even with a good balance. It may be a combination of the 2 problems. Premium (Hunter Engineering) wheel balancers have a roller to measure the foot ball effect (roadforce and predicts how moving on the wheel to give the least roadforce or indicate which componts are the lead cause), and can scan the wheel each time it is spun to ensure the cone is centering it properly. You could most likely put the tires on a standard black GM steel wheel and not have any noticeable vibration. My background is after twisting a wrench for Goodyear, I became the Training Center Manager in Albany, NY before they closed it in 2003. One of the classes was how to diagnose a vehicle vibration. Other things that may be over looked-the drums may not be balanced (some guys will beet them off with a hammer, and pops the weight off the drum or cheap replacements aren't balanced), a hanging parking brake or brake caliper, worn front end parts (steering stabilizer shock if equipped), or the bolt circle holding the wheel on the car is off center. I had a Buick that drove us crazy, and it turned out to be 2 of the wirebasket hub caps were out of balance-we took all of them off, and found the vibration was gone. Going back to "it didn't vibrate before" leads me to think that a current tire needs to be matched to the wheel and properly centered on the balancer.
HTH
Just Carbs
Well-Known Member
The devil is in the details.
But just finding the details is a job in itself.
But just finding the details is a job in itself.
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