bubble balancer use-or misuse

rogerkb1936

rogerkb1936

Well-known member
i have a quality old time bubble type wheel balancer, and don't know all i should about using it. the bubble itself is 1/2" dia. there are crosshairs on the glass, and a circle 3/4". is anywhere in the circle ok, or should it be better. for appearance sake i am only putting weights on inside of wheel, which i believe is not correct but i am trying to get away with it. thanx for help.
 
I have used one for 19 inch wheels years ago it worked well. I too put the weights in the back and it seemed to work fine. I do know it is recommended to have weights distributed on both sides which will allow relatively smaller weights. Tip: only use the balancer in a location where a breeze of air will not influence the leveler.

Pete
 
a bubble balancer will let the tires start to bounce at 50mph, its just the limitation of the balancer, weights on both sides of the rim give the best results, and the closer you can center the bubble the better the results, i have used these for over 50 yrs and i know what to expect from them, spin balancing is far superior
 
I traded my old bubble balancer for a 50 lb pail of 1/16" 18-8 stainless steel balancing beads. 4 oz per tire and they actively balance the tires as you drive.
 
Back when I used a bubble I tried for dead centre then remove the wheel put it back on the balancer to recheck
 
I have 21" wire wheels and balanced them on a local garage spin balance unit using stick on weights. Stick on's can be placed half way between the inside and outside of the wheel or the back and front of the wheel. No problem after 1000 miles and they are painted wheel color. This is a driver not a show car.
 
When you balance wheels you want to first try rotating the tire on the wheel. Do not trust the dots.

I used a front spindle with oiled bearings. I let the tire find its heavy spot and figured the imbalance based on how fast it rotated. I reduced or almost stopped the imbalance by breaking the bead and rotating the tire until I had the slowest rotation.

Put the 2 best balanced wheels up front. I still plan on putting beads in the tubes.

You also must understand that balance is not as critical because of the heavy unsprung weight of the axles.

A side advantage to using the front hub is you can spin the wheel. Some tires may be out of round and you can check this. I am told some cheaper tires are more likely to be out. My Goodyears were dead on.
 
About 7 years ago I made the same balancer Kevin just mentioned. So far I've used it more to check straightenss of wheels, but it also does a good job of balancing the wheels. By removing the grease and giving the bearings a coat of light oil it spins very freely, and can balance tires to a very small fraction of an ounce. I have no weights on my 28 Phaeton and have no vibrations from the tires or wheels.:)

Also be sure the tires are correctly centered on the rim by looking at the rib or line running around the tire. I was helping a friend with his 19" tires and excellent painted wheels. Even with a lot of tire pressure we had one tire that wouldn't seat fully until we sprayed the bead with WD-40. It then popped into place and we could balance the wheel.
 

Attachments

  • Homemade Tools WheelBalancer1.jpg
    Homemade Tools WheelBalancer1.jpg
    146.6 KB · Views: 41
  • Homemade Tools WheelBalancer2.jpg
    Homemade Tools WheelBalancer2.jpg
    138.8 KB · Views: 36
In the olden days a bubble balance was all we had.
As many people said we put equal weights on both sides of the tire.

If we still had a bounce after balancing the tire we would jack up the car, put it in gear, start the motor and let a rear tire spin.
We could feel the bounce by placing our hand on the fender.
Sometimes we had to switch the tires from the front to find the bad boy.
Later in life they had an electric motor to spin the front tires with a strobe light attached to the a frame that told us where to put the weights.
 
Yep, when I was a kid all there was were bubble balancers. They worked fine, but, seemed to be of far better quality than the newer ones of today that I have looked at.
As narrow as the 'A' tires are, I put the weights on the inside also.
 
Another thing that I don't see mentioned is the alignment of the little arrow to the valve. You have to point the little arrow in the "bubble meter" at the valve. I do all my own tires with my bubble balancer, split the weight, one half inside and one half outside. Take them off the machine roll it around, put it back and see if anything's changed. Sometimes something gets inside the tire and throws the balance off, it can drive you crazy.
Terry
 
Have you ever used brake fluid? I hear it works great but seals the tire to the rim so it can never be removed.
Terry

Tom Wesenberg said:
Also be sure the tires are correctly centered on the rim by looking at the rib or line running around the tire. I was helping a friend with his 19" tires and excellent painted wheels. Even with a lot of tire pressure we had one tire that wouldn't seat fully until we sprayed the bead with WD-40. It then popped into place and we could balance the wheel.
Click to expand...
 
My neighbor has a Snap-On balancer and we not only balance the wheels, but we balance the drums and then balance the entire assembly. Makes a big difference.
 
rogerkb1936 said:
i have a quality old time bubble type wheel balancer, and don't know all i should about using it. the bubble itself is 1/2" dia. there are crosshairs on the glass, and a circle 3/4". is anywhere in the circle ok, or should it be better. for appearance sake i am only putting weights on inside of wheel, which i believe is not correct but i am trying to get away with it. thanx for help.
Click to expand...

Attention to detail; bubble balancers are as accurate as the person using them. Get the bubble as close to the center as possible. I used to use a bubble balancer to static balance helicopter rotor assemblies, they are quite accurate and ours was FAA approved and certified.

Chet
 
I balanced wheels on my 30 front spindle. I found that my new cast drum was way off.
so i balanced the drum first. I made a weight out of 1/8 by 1" steel strap and welded it to the drum. I think that balancing the drum first is critical because if the drum is off you will get different results balancing tires as you rotate the tires and they will never be right. I wouldn't have expected the drum to be off but it was.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top