aftermarket wheel centering???

Try a dealer, sometimes they have better equipment, but the price might be an issue....

 

Thats who is getting the rings Dave. I havent abandoned them completely, but I lost confidence in them when they gave me my car back in worse shape than when I dropped it off. I think it goes back there toward the end of the week.

 

Try this link for my test:

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uXVF-6Mlsk"]20130618_153529.mp4 - YouTube[/nomedia]

 

Where did you get the tires? Was it worse before? I'm still kinda surprised that one tire blew like it did....

 

I got the tires at Tire Discounters, our only tire chain unless you count Walmart. I had a pretty bad vibration coming to Carlisle, the faster I went the worse it got. I had to keep it about 60 for a decent ride. When I got back I made an appointment to get the balance and alignment checked. In the meantime I replaced my rear wheel bearings and rear shocks. It really helped, the car rode much better, almost perfect. It just had a very minor shake at 70. I figured I would keep my appointment anyway. They said the balance was way off and had thier best guy rebalance them. Now its horrible, shakes bad at anything over 55. Thats when they told me about the hub rings. Said it would fix it, but I have my doubts. I dont even think they ordered the right size. I ordered a cheap set today, just in case. Tomorrow the speed shop is going to check them out. If they find the tires are bad, I would expect another set under warranty.

 

Have any other wheels you could try?

 

I think there is 2, maybe 3 on the 76. I could check 2 at a time I reckon.

 

I would try some different wheels, could be a way of finding out if your studs are bent or not. I used to drive a car with slightly bent and loose studs and man did it vibrate all over the place, had another car on stock hub centric wheels with bent/loose studs and it wasn't even noticeable. I didn't really know the difference until I read that link yesterday, but now it all makes sense. I couldn't ever figure out why I didn't ever feel that wheel was about to fall off. Drove it for like 8 months on messed up wheel studs.

 

I just got back from the speed shop. All 4 wheels were out of balance, so they fixed that. They also said that all 4 tires have a "hop". It rides much much better now. Not sure what to do next. Part of me wants the dealer to replace all 4 tires under the manufactueres warranty. The "service work" part of me says, leave it be, it might come back worse than it is now. Still gonna put the rings on it when they come in, cant hurt?

 

What do they mean by "hop"? Is that the same as out-of-round? If so I would think you would want to have the tires replaced. Also, I liked your ingenuity with your testing device.

Bruce

 

The biggest advantages to the roadforce balancer is matching the high spot of the tire to the low spot on the rim. Sometimes one or both the tire and rim may be far enough out that you can only improve the condition and not eliminate it, but it is still an improvement. They do charge more money since each tire/wheel assembly must be mounted, spun up on the balancer, measured for roadforce, the rim is then measured for runout on the machine, marked for high/low spots and then the machine tells you where to mark the tire and wheel to match them. You then break the tire down, spin it on the rim to match, reseat the beads and rebalanced and measured. If the rims are perfect, you likely would need to replace the tires.

 

I watched them balance the tires and it looked like flat spots in the tires as they turned on the machine. I wouldnt call it out of round.

 

I wouldnt hesitate to pay the money for the road force balancing. Unfortunately, noone here does that. One place acted like i was nuts. Maybe Doug will know of a place I can take it to while im in Austin for the roundup.

 

I understand the matching of the wheel-to-tire balances but I wonder if the road force balancing is sensitive enough to mask the flat spotted tire? It sounds like you need either replacment tires or a minor shave on your existing tires and since they're new I think I'd check with the manufacturer. (I can't find the "Just my 2 cents" emoticon.)

Bruce

 

I give up. Im at the original shop and they say the tires are within spec. I watched them check the balance that was just done at another shop and they show out of balance. Somebodys equipment is needs calibrated. The hub centric rings they ordered actually fit, so they are installing those and rebalancing all the tires. Im done after this, I will save money and buy new wheels and tires and a year or two.