Krazy George's Wheel balancing tips.
Part 3
If your tire passes the static test, which means it does not shake up to about 45 or 50 actual road
mph, half that on the speedo, but shakes when you get up to 70 or 80 actual, you probably have a
dynamic problem. This is easier tackled with two people, because one will need to mark the tire with
the crayon as it spins. Study the sidewall first to find a totally smooth area, one with no writing or
serrations or other marks that will 1. quickly wear out the crayon, and 2. cause false markings. Then
spin the tire....have the other person do the spinning while you sit and mark it, because you will
know what to look for after reading this....looking for a sudden side to side vibration of the sidewall
and tread. When this happens, hold the crayon extremely steady, with both hands, next to the clear
portion of the sidewall, and carefully move the tip of the crayon in towards the tire, finally letting it
just barely touch it, marking only the high part of the sidewall. Then stop the tire, and study the
markings. Depending on the severity of the imbalance, you will have a lot of marks in just one small
slice of the sidewall, or perhaps almost half way around it. Weight amounts to correct this are just a
guess to start. Try using 1/2 ounce for the small mark, and 3/4 ounce for the large one. Cut off two
equal sized pieces from the stickon strip of the proper size, and go ahead and apply them
permanently to 1. the rim, as close to the front side as you can, but behind the spokes, aligned with
the center of the marks you made on the sidewall, and 2. EXACTLY opposite this point on the
backside of the rim, but on the flat part above the bead. If you don't get it exactly opposite, you will
induce static imbalance, and have to do the first part over again. Now try spinning up the wheel
again, and see if the dynamic shake is better than it was before. If it is still there, but less, apply 1/2
the amount of weight to both places again, making sure they are exactly opposite each other,
irrespective of the first pair of weights. You can apply stickons on top of each other if necessary.
See why they are better than clip ons?? If the dynamic problem moves, as per another crayon test,
try removing part of the weight you put on the first time, moving the removed portions closer to
where the second dynamic imbalance showed itself to be, by reading the marks on the sidewall.
Clean the sidewalls off with cleaner every time you stop the wheel, otherwise you will confuse
yourself with lots and lots of marks.
You may or may not be able to get all the dynamic balance problems out of your tires, but you will
make them much better and not so noticable above the rest of the road noise your tires pick up. By
far, most of the problems with balance are static, not dynamic. What happens when tires are
balanced improperly, by putting too much weight in one place to get rid of a static problem, is that a
dynamic problem is created. When you spin balance tires on a car, you USUALLY can solve both
problems by the strategic placement of only one or two weights.
The Rear Tires
If you don't have, like most non fanatics, (me not included!!), a wheel balancer in your garage, you
will need to either borrow one, or do the rear tires on the front of the car, as described above. You
will induce two problems into your balancing....the inherent imbalance of the rotor in the front hub,
and the inherent imbalance of the rotor in the rear hub. If you could convince yourself not to apply
the brakes while you are doing this....almost impossible.....you could remove the rotor from the front
hub while doing the rear wheel on the front. But then you wouldn't be able to stop the wheel from
rotating when you wanted to. I have found that the error from front to rear is not usually...not on
the Lowrider anyway....noticable enough to be felt on the road. There might be a quarter ounce or
less difference between perfect and what you get, but that wouldn't be noticed, even with Tokikos
or Konis, because you are not actually connected to the rear wheels like you are the fronts with the
steering wheel. Really badly balanced or totally unbalanced rears are felt through the car seat and
seat of your pants, while the fronts are felt and seen through the wheel and dash. You do need to
make an effort to do the rears, because that throbbing through the but really gets tiring, and it will
also wear them out quickly...we all know that.
If you do have access to a spin balancer, do them the same way as you did the fronts. Start at the
valve stem and narrow the choices for the light spot down to your best choice, and apply the
weight. My Hunter balancer will take them up to about 80 mph, if I manually with a screwdriver
open the caliper a little bit.
Over time, and also, naturally, when you rotate tires, the balance will shift and change. If you
rebalance the tires periodically, you will want to remove the old weights and start over. A big
screwdriver or putty knife will take them off, and then you can clean up the adhesive with brake or
carb cleaner, and you start from scratch all over again. But you did it yourself, and you did it for
nothing, other than the weights themselves and you got a better balance than you can buy
anywhere.
Be careful.....Enjoy!!
George and the Lowrider
Created: Sept 09, 2000
Updated: Sept 09, 2000