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Centramatic Wheel Balancer Review |
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CamJam
Moderator Group Joined: Jan/04/2014 Location: Arizona Status: Offline Points: 6549 |
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On a motorhome it's not easy to find shops that can balance 22.5" wheels and tires, not where I live anyway. Many moho owners put beads in the tires for that reason. I don't like them as they can clog the Schrader valve unless you out special valves in with a screen to prevent that. On my Javelin, I would have preferred to do on the car spin balancing, so as to balance the entire hub assembly, but that's not an option around here either. So I do the next best thing, Road Force balancing. Even with modern computerized machines, I find some shops do a better job than others. Not sure if that's a calibration issue or what?
Edited by CamJam - Jul/23/2021 at 11:40am |
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'73 Javelin 360 (current project)
'72 Baja Bronze Javelin SST '69 Big Bad Orange AMX (2018 Teague Heritage Award) SOLD |
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CamJam
Moderator Group Joined: Jan/04/2014 Location: Arizona Status: Offline Points: 6549 |
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I'm leaning that way too. Trying modern, good quality 16" tires and wheels. There just aren't many choices in tires in 14" sizes any longer.
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'73 Javelin 360 (current project)
'72 Baja Bronze Javelin SST '69 Big Bad Orange AMX (2018 Teague Heritage Award) SOLD |
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390amx1
Supporter of TheAMCForum Joined: Jul/22/2011 Location: Medina, OH Status: Offline Points: 525 |
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As someone with lots of road force balancing experience from the perspective of the car owner, road force balancing is very much dependent on the time taken by the worker, his skill and how much he fusses with it. Also a slightly out rim will not allow a good road force balance regardless in many cases... My Zo6 vette has (at least at the time) the largest/widest tires available on a stock car and I had them road force rebalanced on the back 3 times within a two week period before they got to what I considered "very good"...
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69 BBB 390 Tremec 5-speed AMX #13584 since 1978 (166,000 miles)
08 Zo6 Corvette 22 Ram 1500 24 CT5-V Blackwing #317 Yamaha Supercharged Jet Ski's |
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tomj
AMC Addicted Joined: Jan/27/2010 Location: earth Status: Offline Points: 7544 |
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Thanks CamJam. So there's shops that will mount 22.5" tires but can't balance them?
I do my own alignments now with the Longacre tool and homemade toe tools, because all of the half-decent shops are now computerized, and "its not in the computer". Balance though they do, and yeah, it's a labor thing. I've not had problems with tire+wheel balancing, vs on-car. Maybe I've just been lucky. And my '68 has a vibration over 65 that increases linearly with MPH and it's not driveshaft, haven't foudn it yet, so I dunno. I've taken to buying new wheels, even if just steelies, as old wheels in my experience are rarely true. And rusty/dented wheels leak air. For my old 70 Hornet, I sent the 14" AMC wheels to Stockton Wheel (I think) for truing and powdercoating so I could keep the hubcaps. It was still cheaper than new wheels, and I knew they'd fit. I check my tires out of habit and to detect nail slow leaks but they don't lose a PSI in six months with new wheels. In the past I'd have to add air for trips. No longer. |
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1960 Rambler Super two-door wagon, OHV auto
1961 Roadster American, 195.6 OHV, T5 http://www.ramblerLore.com |
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Steve_P
AMC Addicted Charter Member Joined: Jun/28/2007 Status: Offline Points: 3806 |
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Cam, something you can try is to put acorn lug nuts on each wheel and torque them down. This will center the wheel. Then remove one nut and replace it with a shouldered nut and torque that down. And repeat.
In the 1990s I had 15" torque thrust wheels with shouldered lug nuts, so it is possible to get it right- mine was smooth to 120 MPH. But I also had some of the best high performance tires you could buy at that time.
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Buzzman72
AMC Addicted Joined: Sep/15/2009 Location: Southern IN Status: Offline Points: 2725 |
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Back in the early 1970s my brother put a set of Cragar S/S wheels on his bone-stock '70 6-cylinder Gremlin. Cragar used the shouldered lug nuts. All was fine UNTIL he tried to change a tire and started snapping lug studs because the stock Cragar shouldered lug bolts bottomed out at the hub. I guess road salt in the winter and other corrosives "welded" the bottomed-out nuts to the studs. My guess is that the supplied washers simply were too thin by a few thousandths enough to let the nuts bottom out.
So while the possibility is slight...check to make sure that your shouldered lug nuts aren't bottoming out and leaving some "wiggle room" for the rims at higher speeds.
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Buzzman72...void where prohibited, your mileage may vary, objects in mirror may be closer than they appear, and alcohol may intensify any side effects.
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CamJam
Moderator Group Joined: Jan/04/2014 Location: Arizona Status: Offline Points: 6549 |
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That's a good point that I hadn't considered. Will check it out.
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'73 Javelin 360 (current project)
'72 Baja Bronze Javelin SST '69 Big Bad Orange AMX (2018 Teague Heritage Award) SOLD |
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73Gremlin401
Supporter of TheAMCForum Joined: Mar/02/2013 Location: Stmbt Sprgs CO Status: Offline Points: 948 |
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Cam - I have a feeling your issue has to do this your 2nd sentence above. You've got 2 different radial tire construction types fighting each other. That you are smooth up to a certain speed, that is well above when normal imbalances happen is an indicator of this. There's nothing wrong with either brand on it's own, both are fine manufacturers (and I work as a tire testing contractor to a different tire company, so I've got no skin in this game) but you need to make a decision and get a matched set of tires from a single mfg. Adding to your can of worms is that you are driving a car that was never tuned by AMC for radials - which means that any harmonics that radials create naturally aren't going to be quelled by anything that was engineered to do so on the body shell itself. So - in a nutshell - you've got 2 tires fighting each other, mounted to a car that won't do anything to break up the fight.
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73 Gremlin 401/5-spd.
77 Matador Wagon 360/727. 81 Jeep J10 LWB 360/4-spd 83 Concord DL 4-dr 258/auto |
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CamJam
Moderator Group Joined: Jan/04/2014 Location: Arizona Status: Offline Points: 6549 |
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Well that's a good thought too, Kurt. Since that's what you do for a living I'm going to assume that you have some expertise in this area.
Coincidentally, I've been looking on line at new wheels and tires this morning, and just started another thread about wheel offset.
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'73 Javelin 360 (current project)
'72 Baja Bronze Javelin SST '69 Big Bad Orange AMX (2018 Teague Heritage Award) SOLD |
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