Okay, hero is a bit of a stretch but earlier this week a local young guy called me up and asked If I balance tires. I've been helping with some guidance through his build. I replied that I just use air soft bbs in my tires and they seem to work good. He then tells me it's for his model T build (half hamb friendly), which is running 16" steelies and bias plys with tubes. I told him I have a bubble balancer and a hunter spin balancer which I had never used yet since I bought it 10 yrs ago, and he'd be best to take it to our local tire shop and have him balance them. Well, he took it there and they tried to balance one and it kept calling for different weight amount and spots so they told him they couldn't do it and washed their hands to help him. He called me back and today we ended up bubble balancing them. (I had trouble figuring out the spin balancer). He texted me later and happily reported no vibration at 85mph now. (Had a VERY bad vibration at 75 before that only got worse). Feels great to help this young guy out with old technology that the big store walked away from.
Well done. One day I'd like to find a bubble balancer. An older fellow one time that NASCAR use them but I'm not sure I believe him though.
Bubble balancer will work on most standard offset wheels. When you get wheels with large offsets the results will not be a dependable. I had a Hunter balance that my father had in his tire store since the 60's. Looks like the Harbor Freight one above. The pin broke that it balances on. I replaced it with the Harbor Freight balancer. It seems to work.
@borderboy1971 ....Congratulations on your good deed! It’s a good feeling when we can help out someone, especially when what they needed isn’t easily found. I well remember those Hunter spin balancers. First got introduced to them in the late ‘50’s. Aside from the advantages of dynamic balancing, they also balanced the drum/hub along with the tire/wheel. A person needed to mark the wheel and a lug stud to reinstall it in the same position on the hub if removed for some reason. The spin motor part was only useful for (typically) front wheels because of their free rotation. For rears, the axle was jacked up, the adapter ring and balancer assembly clamped on (same as in front), then a volunteer or draftee got in, put the car in gear and revved up the wheel! The balancer assembly had a stack of smooth aluminum discs or knobs protruding from the center, two red and two blue, as I recall. One pair added or subtracted weight and the other pair rotated the location of the weight relative to the wheel. I always wondered what carnage would occur if the adapter ring came lose from the wheel while spinning, and the assembly went flying, but never saw it happen. Ray
It could be bad. From shooting across the shop, to taking the operator's kneecap out if it was in the path. We had to quit using them for just that reason.
Back in the 60's we used a spin balancer (Alemite?) that had a small transducer you stuck to the lower control arm (magnet) and then used a strobe light to find the heavy spot. Easy and worked great, especially on wire wheels.
Used the heck out of the Hunter spin balancer at the Lincoln-Mercury shop. If you have a good set of round tires you can dial them in very well. I really liked that balancer. However, after you put the adapter on the wheels and locked them down you needed to give them a good pull outward to make sure they were firmly locked. I worked there back in the day of belted/bias tires. Those tires were so bad for being out of round that first you had to use a dial indicator to check both radial and lateral runnout. If they were within Ford specs you balanced them with the Hunter and you could get a smooth ride. If not, you sent the customer to the tire shop for a set of round tires. Many times that got the customer caught in; "there's nothing wrong with the tires, the problem lies with Ford". Final fix, pull a set of Michelins off a Lincoln and install them on the car. Always drove smooth a glass. Sold a lot of Michelins that way.
I’ve got one of those bubble balances and use it often. I have been looking for one of those machines that spin the tire! My thinking is bubble balance it, put the tire on the car and spin it to see if it shakes! Best of both worlds! Also you can use that tire spinner to spin the tire and mark it to check the toe in. Bones
I’ve balanced hundreds if not thousands of semi truck wheels with a Bee Line strobe unit. It’s more art than science, but once you figure it out the results are amazing.
That is the exact same balancer setup that I learned to use in the early 1960's working during and after high school in our local small town Chevrolet dealership. I still scratch my head wondering why we never, ever had the adapter ring come off just once in hundreds and hundreds of tires being balanced by five of us "mechanics" who worked in the dealership.
Back in the day, I had same bubble balancer and a coats 40/40 tire machine ... sold it to my Uncle and best choice I ever made He stored them and I went to his house to borrow them. That ballancer does a great job. If it is asking for 1 ounce weight, you take 2, 1/2 ounce weight and spread them out till is satisfied... thumbs up ... if it needs a lot of weight, you put a big weight on the back side of the wheel and then divide up whats left on the front .... sometimes you need to break the tire back down and rotate it to change the amount of weight needed. Hash tag #IDONTNEEDASTINKINGDIGITALBALLANCER
What I was meaning was to use the machine to get the tire spinning. The faster the wheel spins the more accurately you can scribe the tire. Sometimes just spinning it my hand, it slows too quickly to get a good mark, especially if the brakes are dragging any at all. Just ran into this problem last week with our race car. Bones
I must be getting old. I saw the 85 mph remark and had to think of the last time I drove that fast...in anything. Guess I'll just hang out here in the right lane and watch everyone fly past me.
Regarding some of the style of his T. Yeah, it's not completely hamb friendly, but does check a few boxes at least. And I'm not gonna lie, I too have wandered in my path from righteousness at times . I've helped him out with a few things along the way and although I don't need paid for it, he's giving the complete model t chassis and engine to me that came out from under this coupe...that he cut down . I seen pictures of what he started with and it looked like it was a REALLY decent complete coupe except trunk lid.
Great job there helping a young un - hopefully he'll be back to help you ! Have the bubble like yours but always wanted that wheel spinner you have just keep getting out bid. We had one at the Enco/Exxon I worked at but I didn't operate the balancer . The was a guy that was a king on that machine with the wheel attachment he would just hold in his hand. He just made it so damn easy looking - watched him a lot..........
Well, isn't today your lucky day? https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/hemmeter-dial-o-matic-wheel-balancer.1190450/
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