• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

Balancing brake rotors.

Share this page

G

Guest

Guest
Guest
Offline
I don't know why but nobody balances new brake rotors anymore. They balance their premium line (which they don't have for a Javenlin) but the regular rotors aren't balanced.

Here's a huge surprise....Wilwood doesn't balance street rotors either..... on a kit with a MSRP of $925.00!!


Is there anyway I can balance them myself?
 
I have 2 ideers for ya. First, find a race oriented tire place, that can balance the wheels/tires on the car. This takes into account the hub, rotor wheel and tire imbalance. Don't forget to mark a stud and stud hole in the wheel for future reference.

Second, clean the wheel bearing really well. lube them with engine oil, and install them in the hub, with no grease seal. Set it up w/ zero play, but without any real preload. Attach the rotor however it goes... If you have to use lug nuts to hold it in place use them all.Let the rotor "fall" if it will.Mark the low spot repeat a couple of times. If it is always a random stopping point, probably Ok, if it stops in the same spot (assuming no friction, bad bearins ect, mark that spot. Gring a wee bit away from that spot, and repeat. Repeat until it does not stop there anymore, either you will be nuts, or it will be decently balanced...
 
I can see that rotor balance could be an issue... over about 225kph.


m
 
SilentUnicorn said:
I can see that rotor balance could be an issue... over about 225kph.


m
Click to expand...

Well, the drum that was on it was out of balance. It spit the bushings out the upper control arm and cracked all of the suspension mounting points.....twice. ( the bushings only press in 1/4")

The ones Wilwood sent as well as the over the counter stuff is acting like Jesse described above. The ones Wilwood sent were over a half an ounce out of balance and .019" excessive radial runout. Keep in mind that .605 ounces is only 1 1/2" away from where a wheel weight would mount on a 14" rim.



I had a Datsun Z that had a bad front end shake. I sold my Z after I bought new rims and tires and still couldn't get rid of the shake. My buddy I sold it to change the rotors and the shake went away.

No one suspects bad rotors because no one checks them.

Kinda funny how once-upom-a-time manufactures balanced rotrs...then all of a sudden "It doesn't make any difffence"....but the thing will rotate backwards on it's own till the heavy spot is down at the bottom. If it's dectectable like that (at what would be 1/2 MPH), just imagine how it will be at highway speeds.

Some folks say it doesn't matter, however; I have cracked shock towers here that would beg to differ.... and I'm not pulling the engine again to fix it.

I'm already almost six months behind schedule because of this.
 
Back
Top