Wire wheel balancing

[rlester]

I have a 1972 TR6 with wire wheels. It seems that none of the computerized wheel balancers cad adequately hold the wheels properly. The Moss and TRF catalogs picture the "correct way to mount the wheels on the balancer but it apprars that the correct attachments are not available. Any suggestions?

 

[donbmw]

What Moss and the TRF catalogs shows need to be made so your wheels can be balanced. You need an extra spline hub and knock off. Have and machine shop bore out the center of the knock off to the size cone the wheel shops need to use to balance wheels. Wire wheels may not get center right when balance with out this. I have not made mine yet but have been balancing my wheels my self by static balancing using an aircraft wheel balancer stand. This also make and good stand for truing wheels. Desert Tire sells stands for around $400.00 and I have seen some on Ebay also.

Don

 

[Deleted member 451]

I took mine to a custom wheel shop and watched them balance them. The tech took a second cone and put it on the back of the wheel so there was clearance on both sides and the wheel was centered on the cones. Worked fine.

 

[Adrio]

has anyone had any experience with how big a difference this makes. I know with my TR3 wheels I had them ballanced about 18 years ago by a shop that had old guys and tools and seemed to "know" wire wheels. They seemed fine and did not shake much up to 70mph.

My wife's TR4 got the wheels ballanced just last year (the old shop and guys are gone) at a new place and those seem to shake way too much at anything over 55mph.

I have no way of knowing if it is the ballance or the wheels since they are different wheels on the two cars. But I feel pretty confidend that this new shop used cones on the inside of the hole for both the front and back (which if I remember right is the wrong way to do it according to Moss).

Does it make a big difference?

 

[Geo Hahn]

[ QUOTE ]
...I have no way of knowing if it is the ballance or the wheels since they are different wheels on the two cars...

[/ QUOTE ]

How are they different? Swapping from one car to the other (and driving the same road/speed etc) is the easiest way to ID whether a vibration is the car or the tires.

Pretty common (in my experience) that they do not always do a good job of balancing even disc wheels. Just took a set back for a do-over and they reported an alarming amount of weight they had to change. Have also had them forget to remove the old weight, break off the bottom of the valve and leave it rattling around in the new tire and put the weights on so poorly that they fall off.

 

[donbmw]

When my TR3 first got back on the road the tire shop that put the tires on seem to do ok. The tire that Ihave had to replace since then shaked real bad. That when I static balanced them my self and check the wheel for true. I do not have any shaking at highway speeds 60 to 70 MPH. I do as some point will make the tools to have them spin balance and will see it this works better.


Don

 

[Banjo]

A lot of times the wheels are out of align, and need to be trued. If that's the case no amount of balancing is ever going to help.
I work at a shop where we have a wheel balancer. We don't have the right adapters but I'm working on it.
I'll definatly pass along any info as soon ad I get it.

 

[Keoke]

HI Banjo, Does your shop have one of the old on the car type spin balance machines.??IMOP that is the way to go.---Keoke

 

[Don Elliott]

I have steel wheels on my TR3A. To balance them, I make sure that the wheel shop has the adapter to attach my wheels. They must be balanced with the adapter and the 4 nuts to hold the wheel to the adapter. The reason for this is that the center hole in my TR steel wheels does not have a true central pilot hole like modern car wheels where a cone can center them without needing an adapter.

I have stored my TR3A for the winter, but before I put it away, I swapped wheels with some others I had. During the winter, I'm taking the best ones to a shop that repairs mag wheels to have them trued up. Next summer, they should give a smoother ride after an easy balance job.

https://www.britishcarforum.com/ubbthreads/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1919/ppuser/4127

 

[Banjo]

No Our balancer is an off the car type. You mount the wheel on the machine and it spins it up then tells you where to put the weights.
An on car type would be nice.

 

[rlester]

Update - I found a shop that can do on-the-car spin balance. I worked quite well - up to about 80 mph. That equipment is very hard to find.

Thank you all for your comments.