How many weights does it take to balance a wheel?

Browniepetersen

I could not let this pass by. The wheel is balanced--but, because of the weight I can not get any speed out of the old girl!!! Good thing my new wheels showed up today... Big trip in September and I would not dare drive with this wheel. There is one less weight on the other side.

StillOutThere

That far out of balance the shop doing the shop should have handed it back to you and not charged you because that wheel is bent.

Browniepetersen

The folks a Big O do not charge for balancing and that is part of why I use them. I knew the wheel is bent, but wheels are not that easy to find. It is a toss up between finding the wheels or the hubcaps. The hubcaps can be restored--the wheels, you just have to find another one. I now have eight wheels. Three are good, two are trash and the other three are being powdercoated... The goal is to come out with four good wheels and a possible spare.....

Marconi

Assuming that you did not have a bent wheel, if one balances out this way, the thing to do is deflate the tire and turn the tire on the wheel 180 degrees. Tire makers used to put a mark on the sidewall at the heavy point of the tire, a blue dot or in the case of the OLD Firestone tires the red 'F' on the sidewall. I've balanced a bunch of tires over the years and found that system to work very well, again, assuming that the wheels were not bent.

[Deleted User]

I mount tires and do not balance them. If after high speed driving I discover any issues will then look into it. Have been doing this for years and have not needed to balance any tires !! Tires all run true and wear even. I understand that most folks will not agree with this approach but it has worked out well for me. Learned this on the race tract as it was just a waist of time. If I were to be driving over 100 then I might think about a high speed tire with a balance but since I drive under 80 no issues.

GrimGreaser

Fellas ever hear of tire balancing beads? Little ceramic beads that ride loose inside the tire and wheel. They dynamically balance the wheel assembly while driving. Just heard of these yesterday, but the physics seems sound to me. I've read guys using the heavy type of air soft pellets too, and golf balls for big off-road tires.

Richie

hotrodman2010hotmailcom 9:54AM

I mount tires and do not balance them. If after high speed driving I discover any issues will then look into it. Have been doing this for years and have not needed to balance any tires !! Tires all run true and wear even. I understand that most folks will not agree with this approach but it has worked out well for me. Learned this on the race tract as it was just a waist of time. If I were to be driving over 100 then I might think about a high speed tire with a balance but since I drive under 80 no issues.
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@Hotrodman - I have done the same as you with great results. I bought a tire mounting machine years ago and mount all my tires and do not balance them. There is a BLUE dot on the tires that is supposed to line up with the valve stem hole. The last set of wide whites I got from Dave were mounted and installed without balancing and the car is smooth as glass up to 75 mph. I have not gone any faster but would not believe that there would be any issues. I like mounting my own tires as I did that as a kid. I have done 4 sets of tires this way with no vibrations or tire issues. Richie.

[Deleted User]

Richie

Very surprised to find a like minded fellow that mounts his own tires as do I. It just chaps my ass to pay tire shops for mounting and then balancing and then insurance ,road hazards, tax, epa fees to discard the old tires etc. on top of all this and then find out that they do things like the before mentioned photo with what looks to be a pound of lead on the rim. If the computer say it needs a pound of lead then no one argues ??

The only use I have found for all those lead weights is to put them on a pals front wheel and then see him come back to the shop wondering what is wrong with his tires.... Very funny.

If I get a tire that will not balance it is a bad tire, rim or tie rods ,king pins ,etc., unusually.

By the way I do not like computer cars either..ha They tell you what is wrong and then one finds out that the part was good ,but the computer is bad and is unfixable, to the cost of $$$$$$$thousands.

Any one out there notice that all the new fad of 20 inch wheels with no side walls and 2,000 dollar rims are trashed after the first pot hole that they hit?? I guess that is why I like older cars and steel rims.

Hal

So, and not to steal this thread, I have this story: 1970 AMC Hornet. Wheels had weights when I bought the car, but I wanted to paint the rims. So, dutifully, I removed the weights, marked them and the tires so they could go back on as before. In the end, though, the car shakes like crazy and I found that (my fault) the weight on the right rear slides around the rim like the marble in a roulette wheel. I removed that one weight because who knows now exactly where it used to be and the car smoothed out. Now I'm thinking I should just take all the weights off and enjoy the ride. Have a great weekend, guys. Thanks! Hal

[Deleted User]

Yep them farm boys were the one to know....I used to take my car and pick up a friend who lived on a farm every day during football season as he was some kind of football player and I needed him on my team. His daddy did not think too highly of me but wanted his boy to attend a city school. We would bail hay in early aug just before two a days and were in good shape for all the heat , then the old man thought I was OK.

Richie

Hotrodman, I never thought about playing jokes like adding weights to a buddies wheel and watch what happens, that is funny. Good sense of humor, and as long as the buddy can take a joke. A few years back I mounted 4 new tires on my 50 Plymouth and never balanced them, drove it for a year or so without and vibration or shaking, car drove smooth. I planned on a long trip and thought going that far and at 70mph I should play it safe and get them balanced. I got them balanced and ran around town a few days before the trip, all seemed OK. After starting on the trip and gradually increasing the speed on the hwy up to about 70 (car has OD) a vibration started, so I slowed to between 60 to 65 for the trip. I should have left well enough alone. I actually really like mounting tires and plan on doing it as long as I'm able. Richie.

Browniepetersen

From the time that I was about eight I worked in my dad's tire shop. Dad recapped tires and sold gas (Beeline Gas station). I worked in that shop until dad closed it down some 40 years later. I started with a "bubble" balancing machine and in the mid 60's we got a "Bear" machine. Considered in that day the best money could buy. I spent a lot of time on that machine and I have mounted/dismounted a bunch of tires. I will say this about the Forum that we populate--there are always diverse opinions of how we treat and repair our cars. Just when I think I know what I am talking about, someone comes along and gives me another view point. It is hard to grow old with all that learning going on.....

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

faustmb

My dad did the same thing, we had a tire machine and never balanced tires. He always said that good tires won't need balancing... That said, I've always had mine balanced. I recently spent time working in a very larger tire factory for a major tire manufacture. Watching how these are made and the seemingly poor standard for splicing etc, I amazed that they ride well even with balancing :O

Lee ODell

Back in the sixtys I worked at a brake/alignment/tire shop. We had a customer that would bring in recap tires to have trued and balanced for his Hudson circle track race car. One of the tires he brought in was out of round so much that by the time I cut enough rubber off the tread to make the tire round I had to mount the larges weights made almost 180 degrees around on both sides of the rim. He alway had the recaps trued and balanced. He said that gave him a slight edge to win more races. We used both Bear Balancer or on-the-car balancer for customer preference.

In most case the brake rotor or drum was not a issue when balancing tires, in 1969 I became aware of rotor balance problem. We bought a new 69 Opel Kadet. I could balance the front tires till dooms day and the steering wheel would want to shake out of my hands at 60 mph. I remove the brake rotors and mounted them on the Bear spin balancer. It was like watching a pendalum. Then I would balanced the rotor and wheel together on the Bear machine. Driving after this was smooth as silk. From then on all Opel balance jobs were charged by the hour. There were no takers and I wasn't going to wast my time knowing there was no way to stop the shake without doing the same as my car. I was going to grind the heavy side off my rotors but never got around to it. First set of tires lasted 105,000 miles when I did the first brake job on it. The only thing I had to replace besides oil and water was a water pump within 2,000 miles under warrantee, because the dealer overtighten the belt. After that I adjusted the belt just enough not to squeel. Never lost a water pump after that.

We had a gauge at the shop we mount between F&R inner sides of the tires to check what we called (load change), invented and made by a man named Tyerman. We would bounce the front of the car on the alignment rack plates and the gauge on both wheels would tell us how much the toe-in changed for each wheel if at all. Some cars the needle on the gage went off the scale. This was standard proceedure at our shop before starting any adjustments for best tire wear. If toe-in was changing then we would make changes to the Idler arm angle or pitman arm angle or steering arms as needed to eliminate any toe-in changes. When rack and pinion steering came along the adjustment was made to the steering arms if needed. Then caster/camber and toe-in adjustments were made. This made a big improvement in tire wear and how the cars handled. Come to think of it my Hornet may need to be checked out for load change. Just remembered I did have to adjust the left steering arm on the Opel.

Lee O'Dell

Browniepetersen

Got my new wheels from Jason out in California on Friday, had them powdercoated in Safety Yellow and installed them on Monday. Went from 15 weights to one small weight. The ride is smooth as glass. I love it when a plan comes together.