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Balancing wheels on a 1919 Buick


chas1963

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Is it possible to somehow at least static balance the wheels on a 1919 Buick H 45 touring? Or is it more a matter of making sure each lug is drawn up equally as the rim is secured to the wooden wheel? Any tricks or is it just trail and error? Any thoughts greatly appreciated!

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For the fronts you could jack it up and give them a spin. If they always come to a stop in the same place you have found the heavy spot - at the bottom. If they always stop in a different place they are in balance.

For the back I don't know what they did. Probably nothing. The wheels are so big around, and turn so slow, that balance was not a problem.

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Guest Stearman22

My thoughts as well (I have tubes). Have we gone from truing to balancing? I think truing would have to be done with the legs and I would like to think when I get the point of running my car, I will make up a hub insert that will allow my wheel to be spun on a regular tire balancer, it can't be that hard. Then of course the weights would have to be attached "old school" to the lip of the rim. Just have the balancer write down the amount of weight on a piece of duct tape you give him and attach to the point on the rim.

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My thoughts as well (I have tubes). Have we gone from truing to balancing? . . .

Here is one way to install beads in a tube type tire:

On my '30s car the wheels are true when I measure radial and lateral runout with a dial indicator and they are balanced perfectly on a bubble balancer when there is no tube or tire mounted. But the last several sets of tires I've purchased have been woefully out of balance once mounted. This leads me to believe that the tires available for my size wheels are simply not made as uniformly as those made in high volume for newer cars. The result is that I need to balanced them well if I want to drive the car at what is for it a fairly high speed.

Since my earlier post on this thread I have found some sites that have negative things to say about the use of balancing beads. But I haven't seen anything that looks like a unbiased test or analysis by a qualified technical person to say it works or not. At my current wear rates it will be another couple of seasons before I need new tires so I have some time to further evaluate balance beads before new tires are needed.

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It may be necessary to have your tires shaved. Some tire shops have a machine that will true up the tires by shaving rubber off the treads. Jay Leno has had this done on some of his old cars to cure vibration and shimmy problems. As you know, he drives his cars. If you have a show car that never goes over 30 it may not be necessary. Incidentally the shaving machines date back to the fifties if not earlier. It is not a new problem.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest Al Brass

I tried them on a Ford GPW jeep and they didn't work very well.  I had a devil of a job getting the stuff out of the tubes so that I could redo it with weights.

 

Al

Edited by Al Brass (see edit history)
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