Balancing tires

If, a big IF, you are lucky you might still find a shop that will balance wheels and tires on the car. There is one old time shop in Fresno that still does this.

This can only be done on the front wheels. You would have to disconnect the half shafts to do this on the rear wheels.

If you choose this approach, make sure you mark (bright yellow paint works great) the end of the stud closest to the valve stem so you always mount the tire the same way it was balanced.

Larry

I use a bubble balencer at home because I gave up trying to find a spin-balance shop that even knew what a magnesium wheel was. Remember, all clip-on balence weights will chip the protective paint off Campy rims, which will then moisture-corrode a high stress area that cannot afford ANY strength reduction. If you run Campagnolo rims, use only glue-on weights, preferably in an area that avoids the close approach of any calipers. And like most racers, I add a big strip of fresh duct-tape covering the glued-on weights, for another layer of security. The tape lasts several years.

I like the balance on the car idea, but the load balance is to simulated the load in the front tires (1800lbs) this is expensive, I am thinking of buying a bubble balancer, they are surprisingly accurate. Jack, does it work well for you? How does it compare to a spin balancer?

Did your shop have Hunter Road Force equipment with the latest software? If not then you may want to seek out such a shop. My local shop with such equipment was speaking highly of a software upgrade that was installed about a year ago. Hunter Road Force tells the technician where to rotate the tire on the rim in an effort to minimize balancing weights. The shop owner said the new software worked better and he has been able to get a good balance with fewer wheel weights.

quote:

Originally posted by pantera chris:
... on one tire the weight were 20 ounces to much, the other front 15 ounces to much, .

Granted I know nothing about actual tire balancing, but that seems like a LOT. I was suppose the be a vibration guru for high speed heavy rotating equipment (80 tons at 60hz) and a 20 oz shot (correction weight) was only needed for a serious unbalance

Hey ya'all.

When I was younger, living in the south bay area (near Long Beach, California), there was a business that balanced tires by mounting them on your wheels and then shaving them on a lathe, the more off center a tire was, the more material that had to be removed. A grossly off-center tire could be left with very few miles after balancing. This taught me to appreciate tires that were very well centered during the molding process to begin with, such as Pirelli, Yokohama, and Michelin.

Are there any businesses that still do this?

I don't know of any but those machines went somewhere.

I remember them shaving tires that new,according to "them", had too much tread on them such as BFG T/A's. They would shave new tires down to about 5/32's.

Those were the first design of the BFG's though that on the 50 series would hydroplane very easily.

Lots have changed since then though.

Goodyear's and BFG's are notorious for being out of round new.

My tires get bubble balanced with taped on weights and 'duct tape' (aka 'racers tape') over them

Steve I had the final balance done with the "road force" computerized machine, the tire hardly spun before it stopped and rotated up to the point to place a 1oz. weight, a astounding machine.JFB your right, I was not expecting such a unbalance
!George, the tires are Pirelli's. Doug are you satisfied with the bubble balancer?

Yes. Both cars are bubble balanced and been on the track at 150 plus with no issues. My Pantera and my GT350.

quote:

Originally posted by SteveBuchanan:
Did your shop have Hunter Road Force equipment with the latest software? If not then you may want to seek out such a shop. My local shop with such equipment was speaking highly of a software upgrade that was installed about a year ago. Hunter Road Force tells the technician where to rotate the tire on the rim in an effort to minimize balancing weights. The shop owner said the new software worked better and he has been able to get a good balance with fewer wheel weights.

That reminds me of reading of new tire technology that was at SEMA. The machine had full 3D laser scanning and was able to determine what was best tire on wheel point to offset any imbalance. It would tell the technician where to rotate the tire on the wheel optimally wheel prior to adding any weights.

Hi Chris- the pro bubble balancer I use is from E-Bay along with a Coates semi-automatic tire mounting machine. They both needed TLC as received in 1990 but work well, just slow by today's stds. I successfully mounted & balanced 295-50 x 15"s on 10" Campys & 245-50 x 17" aluminum Z-28 wheels without damage. Those are about the max size wheels the air-powered Coates will accept. Air is only used to break the bead- the rest is arm-power with a 3 ft mount/dismount bar. If I at my age can use it, anyone can.

Besides the mentioned problem with balance shops, I once had a Mickey Thompson aluminum wheel BROKEN IN HALF when a shop tried to use a 'fully automatic' tire mounting machine to put a tire on it. I called Mr. Thompson in CA on the shop's phone and Mickey told us all that automatic tire mounting machines should NEVER be used on alloy wheels. Then he told me to go back to the Speed Shop where I got the wheels and tell them, 'Mickey said to give me a new one'. Which they did, no questions asked. I was just a voice on a phone a dozen States away. The guy was always a class act! I miss him.

Thanks Jack, I worked for a company owned Standard station in San Fernando in 1968, I changed many a tire on the old all mussel tire machine.