Balancing Wide Five Wheels

don's 37

Senior Member
I've went to two different auto repair shops to see if my wide fives can be balanced with no luck. Anyway to do this myself somehow? Any ideas? Thanks! Don
 
Some of the older shops have a adapter ring.
Speedway motors makes a adapter ring for a wheel change that works well when using a bubble balancer also. Thats what we have used for a while.........
 
Don, there was an adapter plate advertised in the V8 Times up until a year or so ago, cost I think about $60 or $70. The number's disconnected now. Forget about using a VW adapter plate, they won't fit. If you contract with a local machine shop to make a plate, you'll need to order a few extras to sell in order to recoup the investment. I got lucky with mine, as a member of my RG made several for the members.

Best bet is to check out the EFV8C Western New York Regional Group in Rochester. Go to a meeting and speak up. Someone there may have one you can beg borrow or steal. Call Frank Schiedt at (585) 637- 8863 and maybe he'll talk you into joining the RG. http://www.wnyrg.org/
 
Have a machine shop machine the centre out of a disused drum,it will then mount to the balancer the wheel will bolt to the drum.PS make sure the machist balances the drum .John.
 
Two suggestions. 1. Go to a place that can spin balance the wheels on the car. Probably a place that does medium size trucks. 2. Have the tire and drum balanced at the same time. Most any tire shop should be able to do this. I have had it done both ways.
 
Everything changes in this world. Change is the only thing a person can rely on. Look how tire sizes have changed over the years. I think some new cars are running 20 inch tires. They will bring the wide fives back again for some marketing reason. I love wide fives. In the sixties you had to have 15 inch wheels with all sorts of fancy white side walls. Now you have to have 16 inch wheels with wide white walls. I hope they do not start making fake white side walls again. The kind that are a white ring that go into the tire rim bead. I remember when you had to run red wheels and no hub caps no matter what color the car was painted. Then you had to run black wheels with black wall tires. I think hot rodders and street rodders are a bunch of conformists.
 
Find the oldest front end shop in the area and some usta have a balencer that does them on the car.Looks like an uprite house vacume cleaner and works great.Has a motor in it that spins the wheel.ken ct.
 
Pico Wheel Service in Van Nuys can do it... if you happen to live in the LA area.
 

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Sturgis 39-I went to sacto.Ca. Areco arena swap meet Sun. HUGE and there was some w/w porta walls, have not seen those since the 50's Harold central coast Ca.
 
Hey guys this is not a problem I have been making a wide 5 wheel balancer adapter for over 2 years, This will adapt any wide 5 to a conventional bubble or spin balancer and is made with the correct 1/2" lug studs not the stock car version 5/8" studs as posted. If you are interested call 518-861-5367 M-f 9-5 ET.
 

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Thanks for the info Dick. We have a place locally that has the old type balancer i mentioned above. Lucky i guess. ken ct.
 
Anyone have a wide five front drum they would sell for cheap just for the help of balancing? I'm on a strict budget here. Thanks for the options Guy's! Don
 
Don, this isn't a sales pitch but using a used hub to balance a tire might be the cheap way to do the job its not very accurate. The tire and wheel are balanced including the out of balance weight of the used drum. When you take the assembly off and install it on another drum the balance is now effected by the weight of that drum assembly, so unless you are one lucky guy the wheel and tire are now out of balance again.
 
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