So,I debated sharing this, because, I'm smarter than this, it is embarassing. For 22 years I chased a slight annoying vibration in my steering wheel at speed, non existent around town. Four sets of wheels and tires, two driveshafts, two trips to the best front end guys around, rebuilt the front end, decided to live with it. So....sitting, staring at old mary like I often do, I realize it's been some time since I packed the front bearings, so....stared at her more, and by god, seems she wasn't about to do it herself, it was a waiting game, she won. Had a spare set of new rotors in the boxes, hell why not, so, changed the driver side first, tried like hell to ingraine as much grease in my palms as I could, but managed to get it all out. Went for a ride up freshly paved 5a toward Merritt, and.....holy shit, better, but not gone. So, home, more grease, new rotor passenger side, more drive, smooth as glass, now....lotsa speed and shit eating grins ensued, happiness abounds. Both old rotors american made, both out of balance, never, ever seen an out of balance rotor, never mind two. Nothing wrong with them, no heat checks, no hard spots, they looked perfect, but from day one, when I put old mary on the road, I been chasing this, the good news? Probably have put on 2000 miles this month alone, trying to wear her out. There you have it, the only thing I never replaced.
Brake drums can be out of balance, as well. I check them one a bubble balancer before I install them now.
Years ago I bought a pair of front brake drums for my '37 Buick Special. Just by looking at them I could see that they would probably shake like Jennifer Lopez' backside. There were big sections of extra metal casting on parts of them. I spent an hour with the grinder and shaved off the extra metal until they looked fairly even around the perimeter. They run smooth, although this old car rarely sees the low side of 60 MPH.
I used to work at a Shell station years ago that did maintenance. I got pretty good at balancing using a system that mounted to the wheel and had an electric roller to spin the tire and a cone that hooked to the wheel with knobs in the center that you could use to positioned weight as the wheel was spun. This technique might have solved your problem.
Sounds like a Hunter Tune-In balancer. That was the balancer we had at the Lincoln/Mercury garage. Balanced a lot of tires with one of those.
Best balancer ever IMO , always worked .Forehead on the wheel opening , when your eyes quit jiggling , you were good to go !
.....until you rotate the tires, or dismount a wheel and don't line it back up on the same hub studs.
Yep the old Enco/Exxon I worked at had one - Ruben was a master at using one of those. I keep looking for a old set up but a good one isn't cheap !
Embarrassed...no need for that...troubleshooting is probably one of the more challenging parts in Hotrod and just be glad you didn't have to pay anyone to chase it down...was it offshore or domestic...many times we trust it is QA approved but that means shit many times regardless of where it's made... I was dogged similarly by a $15 fuel filter... Balance Beads really improved my many waves of shakes and wobbling to a point where it's easy to get into ticket territory without realizing it these days...so yeah discovering and eliminating long term annoying details is like an uptick in the driving experience and without question many things beyond balanced tires effect it that's for sure... Time to add some weight to the scrap bin @trollst, enjoy the driving upgrade and thanks for sharing the things that make one scratch yer' Heed...
And how was the smoke on those rides? Probably you didn't notice since you finally solved your problem!
Wish more people posted the solutions/resolutions to their threads. Usually we never know what finally happened! Thanks!
Thanks for letting us know the solution, I never would have guessed that was the problem- great detective work!
Greg, apparently I never guessed it either, nor all the help on this board when I posted the first time, nor the front end guys doing alignments, or all the advice givers along the way. Just one of those weird things, happy to share here. Stogy, there are cast on the inside, made in USA.
I did read your OP and I see it mentioned there...sometimes reading stuff it goes over my head and through my ears and falls on the floor... I wonder if you can balance them? Someone mentioned bubble balancing... I've had snow packed into the rims and hubcaps through the ride of on several occasions so yes an ounce here or there can certainly be an issue...
Might not have been the balance! Years ago I had an ot car that I was real peticular with. Bought a new set of tires and it developed a very slight vibration at speed. Did almost everything I could think of , even replacing the tires. After a while , like you, just decided to live with it. Fast forward a year or so, the car developed a “ shake” when applying the brakes. Had the rotors “ turned” and the shake and the vibration disappeared! Bones
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