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TR2/3/3A wheel wobble

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Jedi Knight
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I have steel wheels with new Vredestien 165 /15 tires 32 psi .Front rims indicated .040 runout and both backs are around .100 ,slightly over the 3/32 max per my Chilton handbook.
Car tracks straight coasting , accelerating and braking but has a severe wobble that starts at 65+,feeling like a tire is going flat.My wheel run out seems most likely the cause.
I am planning either better steel wheels or maybe mags ,but am wondering if there may be something else going on that I overlooked.Lugnuts are tight.front bearings are adjusted wih slightest noticeable play .I have weak rear driver side spring .
Front suspension,steering etc is all new.I set the toe with string so this could be off,but handling below 65 is great.
Any thought s appreciated,
Tom
 
Hey, Tom -

When I had my TR3, I had the same issue, and from all I've heard, it's pretty common, given the age of the cars and the relatively light gauge of steel used. I kept the original rims and hubcaps for car shows, but bought Minilite replicas for regular use. No problems after doing that.

Mickey
 
I had a vibration between 55 and 60 when I had the spoke wheels. Tried everything, but could not get rid of it. I finally went to the mags and that ended it using the same tires. If you haven't already tried it, you might try moving the front wheels to the back and see if that makes any difference. I suspect that one or more of your wheels is out of round. Good luck.
 
Same issue for me, and similar speed window, roughly 55-65. 99% odds are its one or more of the rims. Alloys solved everything.
 
More of a side note than anything: I had a very similar problem with my old motor home and a friend (who ran a tire store) fixed it completely just by re-balancing the wheels with his personal bubble balancer. The trick, I believe, is that he had an adapter plate that mounted the wheel by the lug holes, rather than by the center hole.

I've wanted to build or buy a similar plate to do TR3 wheels (unfortunately said friend moved away), but instead I think I'm going to try to go the on-car balancing route. I discovered a few years back that the brand new rotors I installed were severely out of balance.
 
I had a similar situation, on brand new tires, but on TR6 steel wheels (on my TR3). I took of the rear wheels and returned them to the same place that balanced them a week earlier. They do not have the adapter, but rebalanced them anyway (with the cone center). Both were off significantly. So I went home and got the front 2 and had them rebalanced too. They were way off also. The manager couldn't guess why the same machine would act differently.

They run fine now with little vibration at any speed -though I have not gone much over 90mph.
 
Thanks for the replies.
Randall you have me curious about the on the the car method.I haven't given the balancing much thought since I know the 2 rear wheels were close to or out of run out spec.,and the new tires were balanced.
Maybe I will go back and have the balance checked.
I really like the steel wheels and hubcaps and think I am going to try and find some better ones and see what happens.
Thanks again,Tom
BTW,Texasknucklehead,I went though the same thing with Sears installing Hancocoks on my truck and after 3 attempts I still have a slight wiggle at 72-75.The TR3 felt like the wheel was going to tear off.
 
Spin the wheels and tires on the car and check them visually from the side. An out of round wheel can be balanced on the most sophisticated computer balancer but will thump every time it rotates , transferring that thump throughout the vehicle ! Newer cars have suspensions and cushioning designed to absorb this , our cars do not. The rear bearing hub flanges on the TR are easily put out of whack when pressed apart , every thing added to that will also be out of whack. Put the car up on jack stands and run it in gear to check the rear wheels. I use a bubble balancer on my all my wire wheels not because its better but because its good enough, provided the wheels are round. Replacing the u joints and having the driveshaft balanced will help enormously.
 
Thanks Binkerhoff.All wheels were indicated on the car after wire brushing,before painting.My motorcycle wheel truing experience is that lateral runout is more felt than radial.Rears are at .100 plus which is slightly over spec.May see what they look like on a bubble balancer.
Thanks
Tom
 
There is a set of Wheels and hub caps for sale on craigslist in seattle and another set in orange co calif. if anyone is interested. Grant
 
Brinkerhoff said:
The rear bearing hub flanges on the TR are easily put out of whack when pressed apart , every thing added to that will also be out of whack.
Click to expand...
FWIW, I have also found front hubs that do not run true.





 
Brinkerhoff said:
Tom, what you said had nothing to do with what I said but thanks anyway.
Click to expand...

Sorry if my response was off track.You make a good point about checking each wheel now that they are on their hubs.I indicated all four on the same front hub that had almost no runout,but haven't checked the 3 now that they are mounted.Also,I had not thought about the driveshaft so I will run the car up to speed on stands with rear wheels off and on,and after seeing Randalls pic indicate all the hubs.
Thanks again
Tom
 
Tom,

I had similar issues with my steel wheels and switched to Panasports. These wheels are perfect and they really look nice on the car.

Paul
 
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