[Chrysler300] Balancing Act

[Rich Barber <barber@xxxxxxxxx>]

Warren:

Thanks for the details on balancing.  I do recall your previous input 
based on your many years of experience.  As a teen in the mid-50's I 
used both the bubble balancer and perhaps a Hunter (?) system that used 
an electric motor to spin the wheel on the car and a clamp-on ring with 
center controls that added and moved weights.  This was labor and 
operator skill intensive, but resulted in a tire/wheel/hub assembly that 
was quite well balanced, especially if we used the bubble balancer to 
find the heavy sides of rim and tire and place them opposite each other 
before using the Hunter machine.  And my buck an hour labor cost did not 
drive the price up that much.  I have not found any local shop with the 
tools, time and skills to do the job the way I'd like it done on my old 
tubed, bias-plied, wired tires.  They just chuck it on to the machine 
and let the computer do a great job of dual plane balancing.

As a mechanical engineer charged with operating and maintaining high 
speed and low speed rotating equipment, I came to appreciate the 
technology allowing precision balancing of rotors and shafts.  Even in 
that high-tech world, there was disagreement on the value of low-speed 
balancing vs. high speed balancing.  Dimensional changes due to 
operating temperatures, rotor dynamics and alignment shifts complicated 
the issue but the goal of minimizing vibration to extend service life 
was the same on all machines.  So it is with our cars wheels and tires.  
If the vibration is not sensed by the operator and passengers, if it 
isn't shortening the life of any vehicle component and if it isn't 
causing uneven wear on the tire, the balancer has done their job 
effectively.  Others have mentioned that tires with flat spots cannot be 
balanced.  This is probably inaccurate as the tire may be well balanced, 
but still generate vibration as the flat spot hits the road.  My old 
nylon Firestone 500's were famous for this in cold weather.  The same 
would be true for out-of round tires that would appear to be balanced, 
but might generate sensed vibration at highway speed.  Measuring runout 
on an inflated tire is easy, but safely grinding off the high spots is 
not for amateurs.

Its a wonder we ever get down the road on our maypops, don't you think?  
Looks like you are having some cool, wet weather like us today.

300-ly,

Richard Warren Barber
Brentwood, CA (rainy and 52 today)
1955 C-300

Warren Anderson wrote: (Deleted to satisfy the server)




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