In the good old tradition of "never turn away a job that'll bring in a buck
or two", most tire shops claim they can balance wire wheels. They mount them
on their dynamic balancers using their regular collars and the wheels seldom
end up exactly at 90 degrees to the axis of the machine's spindle. The
result is a wheel that spins out of true but can still be brought into
balance by applying large amounts of weight.
Ever notice how disc wheels usually have just one or two small weights on
the rim, while wire wheels usually have great gobs of weight on one side
and, coincidentally, an almost equal amount of weight diametrically opposed
on the other side? Sometimes this results in a wheel that remains more or
less in balance when it is mounted on the car, sometimes not. If you take it
back and ask for it to be re-balanced, the usual answer is that the wheel
is out of true and needs to be re-trued.
The real problem, of course, is that there are so few wire wheeled cars on
the road (relatively speaking) that
no commercial company makes a proper adapter to mount wire wheels. Unless
there's a resourceful British car shop in the area, prepared to have an
adapter made from an old hub and an old knock-off, and then a tire shop
willing to use that adapter, most owners of wire-wheeled cars are pretty
much out of luck.
Lawrie
British Sportscar Center
-----Original Message-----
From: Phil Bates <jello@ida.net>
To: Lawrie Alexander <Lawrie@britcars.com>
Cc: MG List <mgs@autox.team.net>
Date: Sunday, March 04, 2001 8:43 PM
Subject: Re: Need wheels trued
>I have never actually watched them do it. I got the tip from another MG
owner
>in the area that was converting his A from disks to wires. He bought
Dayton
>Wire Wheels through Les Schwab. He got some sort of discount through them,
and
>he bought the tires and had them mounted and balanced. Other shops in the
area
>have directed me to them also for wire wheel balancing - doubt they would
even
>think of a full truing, but they could send them off. I have had occasion
to
>take my wires in (that I did not buy there) to get a punctured tube
repaired,
>and had no issues whatsoever with the work or balance. In fact, they even
did
>it for free (and I had never bought anything from them at that time) - got
my
>business down the road for that.
>
>Lawrie Alexander wrote:
>
>> Phil,
>>
>> Is this really true? What special equipment do they have? I've never yet
>> found any tire shop (let alone a mass-merchandising chain like Les
Schwab)
>> to have taken the trouble to fabricate the special adapters needed to
>> properly center a wire wheel hub on their computerized dynamic balancing
>> machines.
>>
>> My guess is, if your local L.S. store does really have a proper adapter
(one
>> which seats the wheel on a cone specifically machined to the correct
angle
>> for the hub's inside taper, and securing the wheel with a "nut" that has
the
>> same taper as a knock-off spinner, it's only because an employee or a
>> regular customer has an LBC. I cannot imagine that would be true in every
>> Les Schwab store!
>>
>> Lawrie
>> British Sportscar Center
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Phil Bates <jello@ida.net>
>> To: Tim Economu <economu@whidbey.com>
>> Cc: MG List <mgs@autox.team.net>
>> Date: Sunday, March 04, 2001 4:32 PM
>> Subject: Re: Need wheels trued
>>
>> (SNIP)
>>
>> >Not sure about truing in the Seattle area, BUT, for balance, most Les
>> Schwab
>> >dealers have the right equip for wire wheels.
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