Tire wheel balancing: is it needed ?

Synchro909 said:
One of our club memebers hought he was doing the right thing a couple of years ago when he bought a complete set of new wheels in preparation for a drive of about 2,000 miles to the national rally. They only just got him there but he had to put the car on the train toget it home. I'd go for decent original wheels every time.
As for balancing, the front of my Tudor used to bounce and vibrate at anything over 50 mph till I balanced the wheels. Smooth as silk now to over 60, whichis enough. I welded an old stub axle to a frame I made. I used second hand bearings (but no notches) set to turn freely. When I mount a wheel on it, the heavy spot goes to the bottom. I use stick-on weights to balance it.
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Do you know what the problem was with the new repro wheels?
 
duke36 said:
Do you know what the problem was with the new repro wheels?
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Don't know why - just an educated guess that the wrong alloy of steel was used or not thick enough. The centres were so badly cracked that they were in grave danger of collapsing. My friend nursed the car to the rail depot and was happy to say goodbye as it left on the train. He flew back and picked up the car on a truck to get it to his home. He was not game to drive it any further, let alone in traffic.
 
Russ/40 said:
Those new wheels are so expensive. Really depends on your finances, and what makes you feel the best. I am the frugal type personally. I never give up on anything if i can fix it, and what I see there is easily fixed.
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Finally I found a car body shop that will weld the 2 wheels and do some matching color paint to cover the welded area. He told me the matching color will not be exact, but for such small section he think it will looks OK.

Let's see the outcomes. I will take the 2 wheels this Monday and pick them on Tuesday. I will post pictures.

Best
Forddan
 
I prefer the original sand blasted STRAIGHT wheels from Berts than the new repro wheels anyday . Berts original Used wheels are real model A .
 
Personally I have never balanced my tires/wheels and have experienced no problems. We should try to keep our speed under control and not exceed 50-55 mph for a couple of reasons. First, we are driving with MECHANICAL brakes which seriously limit our braking power. Second we are driving on four TINY tire contact patches which seriously limit our stopping power. Locking the wheels only makes things worse.



I recommend heating up the brake drums by "dragging" the brakes for a good while starting put. Drum brakes need heat to work smoothly. Likely any vibration or shaking is coming from your front end suspension, not tires.



Drive your car with good brakes for a time and see IF? you have a problem. If so then go the balancing route. Good luck.
 
In many cases balancing isn't mandatory . I mostly don't wait for problems . I want mine to be as smooth as possible . I now always have my wheels and tires balanced before installation as I would on the modern vehicles . We usually don't drive our model A's faster than 50-55 . Our mechanical brakes work about as well as modern . Hydraulic activation doesn't necessarily improve the brakes . If the inner parts aren't worn out and the brakes are properly adjusted and set up correctly , mechanical brakes can function very well .
 
Russ/40 said:
Those new wheels are so expensive. Really depends on your finances, and what makes you feel the best. I am the frugal type personally. I never give up on anything if i can fix it, and what I see there is easily fixed.
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Thank you all for your answers and comments. I can see there is a divided opinion about balancing or not the wheels. As I do not plan on driving the car more than 30-45miles / hour (45 going down a slope :-) ) for now I will leave them unbalance.

About the cracks, as I posted, a body shop offered to do the welding of the 2 cracked wheels. When i took them out, i found that they have been welded in the past. At the inside side of the hub it was visible the welding. Who did it left a big chunk of material. It was also visible that the crack have grown (it was longer that the welded surface).

The guy of the body shop grined all that excess, made 2 small holes a little further from the tip of the crack and did the welding. He explained me that those 2 small holes and the way he was going to do the welding was meant to stop the crack growing. Unfortunately I was not able to see the process and I hope I am explaining it well.

The bottom line is that you can not see at all on the inside or outside of the wheel where the welding was done. It is perfectly flat on both sides. You pass your hands and no feeling at all of a repair. On top of that the paint masked the grinded area..... so for me was a FANTASTIC job.

The picture shows 1 side, but is all like that, inside or outside side of the hub, you only see a perfect smooth wheel.

The paint on the wheel looks so nice that I finish taken the others also for a paint refresh. They also straightened all the bent wires. There were a few in all the wheels.

Bottom line : They painted the 5 wheels, straightened the bent wires and welded 2 crack for..... FREE !!!

They didn't want to charge me. So I order a bunch of big pizzas for all the guys that work at that body shop (8 employees).



This is one of the cracked wheels... smooth all around the hub.

Have a nice day !!!
 
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Wow that wheel turned out great and sounds like you may have made a couple of friends along the way.


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Quote:
I have a 1929 Tudor and I am planning to replace a wheel that have a small crack in the Hub.
How about just welding up the crack rather than replacing the wheel?
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I read that yesterday. Then I checked the wheel hubs on my roadster. And found that two rims have a crack! I had this welded today with WIG/TIG-procedure. That's fine.

Once again a helpful thank you to this forum!


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I thought of this thread today as I balanced a set of 5 wheels. The tyres are new B F Goodrich 19" (USA made) on good rims. None of them needed less than 70 grams (2 1/2 ounces) and the worst was 230 grams - that's 8 1/4 ounces! Yikes! With a tyre as lousy as that, I think it (and the car) would be bouncing all over the place at 45 mph or less.
Is it needed? I think absolutely so.
 
Werner said:
I think too. New Firestone. The left wheel had 2 ounces, the right 5 ounces unweight.
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A few years ago, we couldn't buy a decent tube. Seems the rot has extended to the tyres as well. Good tyres have been mede for a century. Will they ever learn not to meddle with something that doesn't need it?
 
Safety first! Looking at the photos it appears the crack shown has been previously tack welded. It also looks like there is some deep corrosion going on. Personally, I would heave the rim and replace it. It's not worth taking a chance and having it fail, even going 35mph.
 
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