Wheel balancing

[dillyman]

Everyone seems to love our 33s. I wasn't too happy with my first ones some years ago - but Becky is a little belter!

I am, however, sure that she would be even happier with me if only I could find somewhere with facilities to balance her front wheels. None of our local tyre places can help. What has happened to all those machines which used to spin and balance on the car? I suppose that 2CV owners have the same problem. ???Any suggested leads in the Merseyside/Eastern North Wales/Chester areas will be be diligently followed up. Over to you.

[Nick the man with a daf....]

ive got a motorcycle wheel balancer that looks like an inverted cone with a spirit level bubble in.. you lay the bike wheel across it and go from there.. maybe this could be used on these wheels.. ill try it on one of bags wheels when she turns up and report back

it isnt dissimiliar to this..

cgi.ebay.co.uk/Wheel-Balancer-workshop-classic-track-day-banger-/150485049392?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item23099ba030

[spunkymonkey]

For the size of wheels (narrow) on these dynamic balancing is of limited value because the secondary balance couples are going to be pretty small anyway, but static balancing as suggested by Rottie is definately worth doing! On the front wheels you can get a pretty good idea of what they're like in the same way you would with a push-bike.

Jack the wheel up and slacken the brake adjuster right off so there's no drag. Spin the wheel gently and see where, and how, it comes to a stop. Repeat several times and you'll soon see if it's badly unbalanced because the same point on the wheel will tend to be at the bottom each time.

Certainly not 100% accurate but if it stops pretty randomly then they're probably not far enough out to worry over on one of these!

[dillyman]

Thanks for the initial suggestions. I think that one or more front wheel must be out of balance because I am getting steering wheel shake at speeds over about 50 m.p.h. There is negligible play at the steering wheel rim when stationary. What else, if anything, might cause the shake?

I will see what our local bike shop has - or even push bike shop I suppose!

My thick and aged head takes ages to assimilate how to do things computerwise. Yesterday I thought I might update my avatar to reveal Becky in her new dress but was defeated! I was told to identify the url (?) of my required picture and I have forgotten how to find this!

Incidentally, knowing that almost anything clever can be accomplished if only one knows how, is there any way in which an avatar photograph can be arranged to be enlarged as per flea bay photos?

[pauldaf44]

I got steering wheel shake at the speeds with because of a busted front strut.

I put my 44 wheels on the cone balancer and haven't had a problem. Why cant you do that on a 33?

[drivenbyclassics]

i can balance any 3 stud wheels as the company i work for still has the adapter but i am in norfolk

[lambro]

i can balance any 3 stud wheels as the company i work for still has the adapter

Me too, but Im in Somerset.

Any tyre depot with an adapter plate for the french stuff will have the ability to do it.
As long as they can be bothered that is.

[Nick the man with a daf....]

hi Paul.. maybe the 33 wheels are different in the middle than a 44 wheel??

[Richard DAF Webmeister]

Yes. 33 wheels don't have a big hole in the middle!
I had my 33's wheels balanced a few years ago at a good old fashioned country garage that had a machine that checked the balance of the front wheels with them still on the car.

It was very interesting to see the speedo go from 0 - off the scale in about a second!

[andrew]

I'm glad to have found this thread and some of the advice herein. Following an unfortunate incident on the M6 (a puncture!) I've just had four new tyres (Firesone 135/80R13) fitted to my 33 by a competent garage, although they were unable to balance them, as the wheels don't have a hole in the centre and they didn't have an adaptor. Although the car feels much more stable with its new tyres and the steering feels lighter, there is a slight vibration at about 50mph, which disappears once the car's dong over 60 mph, so the balancing does need to be checked.

I eventually tracked down a garage in north London who did have an adaptor and drove to their workshop, where they whipped the wheels off, only to inform me that their balancing machine, although fitted with the necessary adaptor, was unable to balance the wheels, because the stud holes are recessed in the hub, and therefore it's impossible for the whole wheel hub to be in contact with the flange on the balancing machine. I've looked at the spare wheel and I understand what they mean by this.

So.... what to do? I cannot believe Daf didn't supply some technical advice to garages about balancing wheels, or was wheel balancing not so advanced in the 1970s (probably not!) I'm currently in contact with a firm called Hometyre, who have requested some pictures of my 33's wheels, which I'll forward them later today. I'll keep the forum informed as to how things progress, but in the meantime, any thoughts would be appreciated!

[daydoodler]

Hi when I had my 33 I had balance problems. my solution was to go to my local tyre shop and ask nicely for a hand full of used wheel weights get a selection of good ones in various weights 10g 15g 20g 30g and give them a good wire brush to clean. Jack up the car and slacken off the brake adjusters, the wheel if unbalanced will fall to its heavy spot. lightly tap a 15g weight onto the top of the rim and turn 90 degrees, if the heavy spot returns to the bottom you need more weight if the weight goes to the bottom its too much weight. When the wheel does not move whatever position its put then you have a balance then hammer the weights on firmly. hope this helps

[andrew]

Apr 16, 2019 19:40:11 GMT daydoodler said:

Hi when I had my 33 I had balance problems. my solution was to go to my local tyre shop and ask nicely for a hand full of used wheel weights get a selection of good ones in various weights 10g 15g 20g 30g and give them a good wire brush to clean. Jack up the car and slacken off the brake adjusters, the wheel if unbalanced will fall to its heavy spot. lightly tap a 15g weight onto the top of the rim and turn 90 degrees, if the heavy spot returns to the bottom you need more weight if the weight goes to the bottom its too much weight. When the wheel does not move whatever position its put then you have a balance then hammer the weights on firmly. hope this helps

Wow, real "thinking outside the box" (or the wheel...) Thanks!

[andrew]

Success-well, partial success, anyway! All 5 wheels were expertly balanced by a guy who was very knowledgeable about tyres and balancing, explaining everything as he went along. The use of inches (Imperial measurements) for some parts and metric for others was one I knew of, but still find odd; Daf 33 tyres are 135/80R13, the 135 being the width in milimeters, but the 13 being the wheel rim diameter in INCHES! One would have thought the tyre industry would have standardised these by now!

Anyway, the result has been an improvement in the vibration I was feeling through the steering wheel, and I'm more then happy with the result. There is a small shaking at 55 m.p.h., but it's too little to lose sleep over, so I consider that a result!. Hometyre, the firm who carried out the work, did a good job and I'm happy to recommend them to any other Daf owner having a problem finding a balancing service for any closed wheels. The charge was £15 per wheel, so £75 for 5 wheels, balanced at my home, seems quite reasonable.

[andrew]

Almost a year later, and having suffered with a shaking steering wheel for that time, I did some internet exploration & found a tyre & wheel shop that claimed they could "do" closed hub wheels! And they could! I take my hat off to "thetyreshop.com" of Chingford, London E4 (020 8531 2300) who, after a huge amount of twiddling, fiddling and effort, managed to balance the 4 tyres on my Daf 33. Having had the work done, I drove back, in flagrant disregard of the prevailing speed limits, at over 60 MPH and can confirm that I no longer have any steering wheel shake at 50-60 mph (or at any other speed!) Brilliant!

All the staff in the workshop spent time, took pictures and admired my 33, and apparently it will appear on social media (as well as being mentioned in the staff magazine!) and I did say their efforts were worth a mention in the club's forum-hence this entry!

[starider]

Hi Andrew,

I'll be having 4 new tyres on the van so I'll be interested how they balance them. The DAF dealership I worked for had an "on the car" wheel balancer. This worked well as it balanced both the front hubs,brake drums and of course the wheel and tyre.What we had to do was balance a pair of wheels on the front then fit these balanced wheels on the rear.Then balance the other pair on the front.A bit time consuming, but as you found, the difference was very obvious.
It's always great when you can praise good service! The BSA Bantam Club issues "A good Blokes Guide",a booklet which every few years, lists business's who give good service to Bantam owners.

[andrew]

A year later and I've had some "steering wheel wobbling" problems again. I re-read this thread and with the use of a hydraulic jack, a brake adjuster and some time I can confirm that the method mentioned earlier in this thread WORKS! Having wound the brake adjuster off, I spun the wheel about six times, and every time it settled with the 25g weight at the 6 o'clock position, often rolling back to that position after passing it. I removed that 25g weight and the position of the wheel after that was random and it never "rolled back" at all. Once I'd re-set the brake I took the car for a run and, voila no wheel wobble, or at least So little as to be inconsequential!

The clever thing about this method is, as explained, it balances the wheel tyre and hub as a whole thus eliminating any imbalance in th hub. I plan to balance the other wheels in the same manner when I have the time.