Tire Balancing

[AMXguy]

There is not a tire shop in eastern Oregon equiped to balance the original style lugcentric wheels like the Magnum 500's and such. I'd like to buy a 5 X 4.5 adapter to take with me when I get tires balanced but I can't find one ,or maybe get a bubble balancer and do it myself. anyone else run into this and what did you do?

[Chryco Psycho]

Weird , most balancers have adapters to go from the center hole or lugs

[AMXguy]

Yes that's correct but the nearest shop anyone knows of with a 5 X 4 1/2 adapter is 150 miles from here. I have 3 cars I could use it on so I'd just buy one if I could find a place to get it. so far all I've found are wall racks with a full set of adapters but I don't want one that bad.

[HP2]

So they can't balance late model Jeep or Mustang wheels?  Ask them if they have the metric equivilent. Maybe they just don't know the mathmateical conversion is 114.3 mm.

[Purple73Cuda]

My spin balancer (Snap on) has tapered cones that locate the wheel through the center hub. I know in the past I have balanced these types of wheels using this setup.

[Super Blue 72]

I have a terrible memory but I remember something about a special way to balance the Magnum 500 wheels, that the tapered cone style balancer doesn't work as well. 

Does it have 5 fingers or something to center the wheel?  I remember I asked one place a long time ago and they thought I was crazy since, as the guy said, "Those old cars don't go that fast anyway..." 

[quagmire]

Even if a wheel is lug centric you can usually still mount it with the adapter cones with no problems.  I rarely ever used a lug adapter.  You just have to make sure it centers properly while seating the cone.  If it doesn't work you'll know right away since there will be excessive runout when it is spinning on the balancer.

[AMXguy]

That's what they've been doing but the results are only so so. I marked where the weights were and had them rebalanced and now they're in  different locations so this tells me it's not working well. once again you can feel it a little.

 I wonder if a bubble balance would be better? if I can't buy an adapter I'm thinking of trying that if I can find one.

[quagmire]

You may need to get them done on a road force balancer if the weights are chasing around that much.  As long as they were mounted without excess runout you shouldn't be having problems getting them balanced. 

A bubble balancer is going to mount the wheel the same way with a tapered cone, and it can only do a static balance.  It won't tell you whether the weights should be in the inside or outside of the rim like an electronic balancer with dynamic balance can. 

All balancers can and do lose calibration over time, and they are only as good as their operators.  How far off are they in terms of weight?  You may have one or more bad tires with shifting belts.  That would cause the balance to move around a lot and cause vibration problems.

 Do they sit for a long time?  If they are flat spotting  getting the tires balanced during that time will not be accurate since it will usually go away on its own after a good drive.