At home wheel balancing

Does anyone have any idea on "good" redneck ways to do this? I dont live near a shop. (Amish country).

I have also heard of people putting some sort of rubber toy pellets inside a tire. Supposedly as the tire spins these pellets locate themselves at the appropriate places centrifically to balance the tire. I assume this is similar to the liquid tire balancer you can purchase for large trucks.

I appreciate any advice.

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Here's a type of technique that adequately accomplishes the intent w/o any special tools. You need not necessarily remove the wheel from the MC, but I'd recommend such preliminary steps as first verifying (tire,wheel, hub, spokes ...) cleanliness, riding it to heat the bearing grease and removing, retracting or disconnecting anything (cables, chain or drive shaft, brake pads or shoes ...) that affects rotation before attempting to balance.

have seen at harbor freight kits designed for motorcycle tires, bubble bala ncers and the like. I have heard bubble balancers are not acurate.

near a shop. (Amish country).

e a tire. Supposedly as the tire spins these pellets locate themselves at t he appropriate places centrifically to balance the tire. I assume this is s imilar to the liquid tire balancer you can purchase for large trucks.

I recall a shop I worked next too back in the 80's that used a strobe light to balance the tire while it was on the car. Not sure how it works though.

They are as accurate as the operator makes them. The computer units simply take less skill and time.

Buy a bubble type. find or make a small pad where the balancer can set where it is clear and level. Place the balancer on it and check it over for level.

And it does the same thing, screws up the inside of the tire.

If you do it yourself I think it is a good idea to first remove all of the rocks/pebles from the tire treds. I have a little stepped cone lawn m ower balancing device I use for when I sharpen my lawn mower blade. I wonde r why somebody doesn't make a larger version for do it yourself wheel balan cing?

That style worked a lot like the early spark dynamic types. The strobe would trigger when the heavy spot was passing a pointer. You would then stop the rotation and put a chalk mark on that spot. You would then turn a dial while watching the mark. When the strobe didn't trigger you read the dial for the weight needed. Add the weight by splitting it into 1/4s then two were added to each side of the rim at your mark. Then spin it back up and check it. Might take a good operator two cycles to really be sure they were balanced.

What amazes me is how bad some tires are that people bring in to be balanced. Cupped, flat spotted, weather checked to the cords, edges torn up from under inflation, broken belts, obvious heat damage. Many of them I turn away simply because of the safety concerns.

" balance"???? I got on you tube last night, someone said they balanced wit h a bubble balancer then a computer balancer and the computer said it was o ff. I have no idea if these things are true or not. I wanted to ask you guy s here.

DOes anyone balance their daily driver strictly with a bubble balancer?

There have been a bunch of styles. My favorite is the old Wards unit my father had. It had a small center bubble mounted on a large plate with holes in it. The holes have letters next to them with a chart for the letters. The chart listed which set of letters to use for each wheel stud pattern. Into the holes you put short cones. The cones went into the lug holes and then you balanced the tire.

I know a lot of folks who do. I do if I don't feel like messing with the machine. Never had a problem. I have even balanced them with the bubble then tossed them on the machine to see how close they were. Only had one that was off and was corrected by simply sliding the weight by 1/4" .

I had some new tires put on my car and was surprised at how many weights they added. My thinking is that if it needed so many weights, they should have dismounted the tire and put it back on 180 degrees rotated. Does this make any sense?

It can become complicated. Spending some time with a wheel and tire on the balance machine may solve some problems. It is not just the static balance that influences ride. There are other factors.

See these pages:

Why are there all these strange dots on my tires?

Why do the dots go where they go?

I did it once. Had my tires balanced at station. Drove it, didn't like it. Took car back had it redone. Still didn't like it. Did it crudely with some kind of ball. I was satisfied then. Must have been some kind of machine problem.

Greg

sometimes if you have a wheel that will rotate under its own weight, you can balance on the car, much like you can balance a bike wheel.

but the bottom line is that it's not a dynamic balance. you need a machine that spins the wheel for that, and your best option /is/ to go to a shop with the right equipment.

I remember some shops had a machine which had an electric motor which spun a roller. The shop guy would jack up a wheel and push the machine against t he tire and flip a switch to get the wheel spinning fast. Then he would tur n off the machine, when the wheel stopped spinning he would put the weight( s) on the wheel.There are some people who collect old service station equip ment. Some of those people might have one of those machines.

Click on where it says steering, suspension, tires and then click on where it says tire truing and balancing.

Take them to a shop and have them balanced the right way!

If the OP doesn't race or regularly well exceed the speed limit on American roads for prolonged periods, then neither he, nor his tires, will ever require, nor display evidence of not, having had a dynamic balance performed on a tire/wheel assembly that is otherwise within specifications (neither bent nor having excessive lateral or radial runout). The static method earlier suggested and described, and precisely accordant with his originally outlined intent, will prove to be more than adequate.

I agree, with stipulations. A bubble balance is strictly static balance, and will give good results in lots of cases, but if you still have vibration or shimmy, you will have to go further.... damaged belts, tread, bubbles on the tires, ad nauseum.

Should it not have been clear, I wasn't referring to a bubble balance but, instead, my earlier post in this thread, namely:

While this approach might appear to be a crude method to the uninitiated, I can assure that it is in fact a valid technique, my first exposure coming from my watchmaker father while demonstrating the poising of a balance wheel, depicted here, which he would then later verify the balance wheel setup results from with the graph produced by this timing machine during my early youth. As earlier stated, I would however concur with the recommendation to perform a dynamic precision balance for racing and more high speed applicatiions.