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MG MGB Technical - wheel balance

hi guys.
I am putting some new rubber on my wheels. can any old tyre shop balance wire wheels or do they have to have a special machine.
Thanks andy.
andy

Andy,
I found most modern car tyre outlets wouldn't touch a wire wheel. I asked a local mg specialist who recommended me to a tyre shop that can still handle wire wheels.

Charlie.
Charles Goozee

Andy, OLD may be the clue there- maybe in some small out of the way village, they are still using the wheel on car method, which was the only way i had seen it done in the 'fifties/early 'sixties, in AUS.
Ken R
Ken Rich

Most wheels are balanced on the centre holes these days, they just need the right adapter to ensure the wheel is held at the right places. The opposite problem affects Rostyles, these should be balanced on the studs as they were never intended to be balanced on the centre holes and they are not manufactured to close enough tolerances. IME the adapter for the studs is rarer than the one for the centres. But on-car would be best of all.
Paul Hunt

Unfortunately balancing wheels on the car only gives static balance not the dynamic balance that the machines give. This may not matter on these cars, I don't have enough experience to know what is required. Usually on narrow wheels static balance is adequate but the wider they are the more neccessary dynamic balance becomes. Static balancing can be done at home, all that is needed is a front hub with minimum friction ie no brake drag, no grease and no oil seal as when setting up the bearing clearance, and a selection of weights. This is sensitive enough to spot an out of balance hub and disc assembly as I found the last time I set up hub bearings.

Maurice
Maurice Blakey

Balancing on-car IME uses an electric motor to spin the wheel up and a strobe to 'freeze' the wheel. Pretty dynamic, given the speed they get it up to. I doesn't seperately balance the sides of a wheel, it is true.
Paul Hunt

Paul,

Where do you go to get the wheels balanced on car?

Paul
Paul

I didn't say I still did, I was speaking from past experience. However Roger Parker told me a while ago of a place in the Birmingham area that still did it. The only problems I have had with machine balancing was for the life of one particular pair of front tyres. Before them, and after them, no problem. I always get the V8 done on the studs though, not the centre holes, even though Abingdon said many years ago of the V8 wheels "At least they were round and concentric, which was more than the other wheels we used were."
Paul Hunt

This thread was discussed between 21/03/2002 and 25/03/2002

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