is a little vibration ok on the highway?

[Steve1970]

it feels more like it's coming from the wheels than say the u-joints.

at the moment i'm not worried about the cause, i just wanna see if others have learned to live with this sort of thing without 'bad things' happening. it occurs around 60 mph, and on a scale of 1-10 (1=mild, 10=severe) it's probably a 3.

 

[kodanja]

What tyres are you running?

 

[TR3driver]

Won't necessarily hurt anything; but does tend to loosen various things that might be important: lug nuts, shock bolts, driveshaft bolts, fillings ...

 

[Steve1970]

tyres are the Coker redlines that are the same dimension as the orig michelins. i got them more for show than for riding/handling characteristics.

 

[DNK]

Move the tire around, front to back. Then see.

 

[martx-5]

You shouldn't have to "live" with any vibrations from the wheels. The most common source of vibration is tires/wheels that are out of balance.

My Miata is very sensitive to out of balance tires/wheels in the rear. I was told on the Miata forum to find someone who had a Hunter 9700 wheel balancer and they would be able to balance the tires. It worked.

 

[Don Elliott]

The steel wheels on my 1958 TR3A are not perfect. I took all 10 bare rims that I have to a tire shop and they found the best four rims. The fifth is for my spare. Then out of the four best ones, I put the two best on the front. It's vibrates between 45 and 55 MPH, so I drive at 65 to 75 MPH where it's smooth.

 

[Steve1970]

thanks guys. i gotta feeling it is a balancing issue too. thinking back, i didn't get the nice warm fuzzies from the shop that did the mounting and balancing.. they took way too long to do the job (weeks as i remember), and when i did pick up the wheels it felt too much like they were trying to rush me out the door. i'll find someplace with a Hunter 9700

hey i like the idea of switching the wheels around front/back just to see if i get a little improvement, for the short term anyway

 

[DNK]

Ya close to Woody's shop. He probably knows someone if he don't do it.

 

[DrEntropy]

If they hustled you outta there, I'd be lookin' at things REAL close. Check the rims for straightness/true... If they let the "trainee" mount 'em you may have issues beyond balance.

I ain't accusin' here, just goin' with experiences and an abundance of caution. That "no respect" thing with regard to LBCs again.

 

[TR3driver]

Don't forget, it might not be the wheel/tires fault. The front hubs/brakes on the project TR3 are so badly out of balance that they will turn on their own to put the heavy point lowest.

Anyone got an old on-car spin balancer for sale cheap ?

 

[trfourtune]

NO, vibration is bad. all your suspension connections wear out faster. Bad for shocks.

 

[Geo Hahn]

I have found old valves inside tires, had weights put on without removing the old weights, had weights fall off on the way home from the tire store, etc. Have had them rebalance a tire and (having noted the location and weight used before) got a completely different result, but still vibration.

Once you drive it with perfectly balanced tires you'll never settle for anything else.

 

[TR3driver]

Another thing to keep in mind; Triumphs locate the wheels on the hub by the lug holes. If the balancer mounts the wheel by it's center hole, and the center hole is not perfect, the wheel won't run true on the balancer. Which means that "balancing" the tire/wheel may actually make things worse!

Once had a balance problem on my motorhome that 3 different shops could not solve. Finally a friend recommended a shop run by an ex-Boeing engineer, who put it on his bubble balancer (which had a special casting to locate the wheel by the lug holes). Problem solved ! The wheel looked fine, but apparently the center hole was not concentric with the lug holes, and the motorhome also located by the lug holes.

 

[Don Elliott]

When I get the tires and wheels balanced for my TR3A, I explain to the kid running the machine that he has to use an adaptor so he can mount the wheels by the lug nuts to the adaptor which he then has to mount onto the machine. If he tells me "No, I only need to center the wheels with a cone", then I take my wheels elsewhere. He doesn't know about our TR wheels.

They come out pretty well balanced using the adaptor and mounting the wheels to the adaptor.

 

[DNK]

As long as the adapter hasn't been kicked around or manhandled

 

[Don Elliott]

Every adaptor that I've seen is made of machine tool steel. They are about 8 to 9 inches in diameter and about 3/4" to 1" thick. If one gets dropped, it will take a chunk out of the concrete floor. If a tire shop has the adaptors, there are usually about 5 that come with the balancing machine. Each adaptor disk is different, so that they can adapt for 4-bolt, 5-bolt. 6-bolt, etc. and there are threaded holes drilled and tapped through the adaptor. The tire technician (not the kid) will find the correct adaptor and then he has to find the 4 holes that line up for our wheel rims. It can be a real puzzle. Then he has to screw the four bolts into the correct holes in the adaptor plate that are correct for our rims. Then he mounts a wheel by tighening the nuts onto the bolts he just put into the adaptor, just like we do when we mount a wheel on out TRs. Then he balances it in the usual manner.

It may take about 5 to 10 minutes to find the adaptors, select the right one and get the set-up ready for balancing your wheels and tires. When you find a shop which has these adaptors and is willing to do it all for you correctly, you leave with the confidence that it was done the best they could for your 50-year old rims. Now, this is what I call "SERVICE".