[Tigers] Steering Wheel Vibration

[Terry Packer]

I did not take any pictures. Heck, I didn't even expect any noticeable results. 

I can add however that I left the brake disks attached and balanced the hub/disk assembly. Also, on my first attempt I did space the hub out on the spindle so the hub's grease seal did not drag. Even so, the hub's cone bearings simply aren't suitable for the job. 

The hardware I ended up using is very similar to that pictured in the link below. It was part of a wheel balancing system I bought years ago and which I still use to balance motorcycle wheels where a good static balance is sufficient. You can see that the two cones are individually adjustable on the shaft via setscrews. For anyone without hardware of this type, I think it might be possible to mount Tiger hubs on motorcycle wheel balancers commonly used in the service departments of bike shops and motorcycle accessory stores where m/c tires are sold. I have not visited one to investigate that possibility yet. 
If anyone else on the list tries balancing front wheel hubs, I would be very interested to hear your results as I'm curious whether there is something of substance here or whether my experience was unique. 

Terry

http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/RLkAAOSwFnFWDFi1/s-l300.jpg

      From: "mwood24020 at aol.com" <mwood24020 at aol.com>
 To: packertl3 at yahoo.com; tigers at autox.team.net 
 Sent: Monday, November 9, 2015 6:06 PM
 Subject: Re: [Tigers] Steering Wheel Vibration
   
 Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. Did you take any pictures?Mike 

-----Original Message-----
From: Terry Packer via Tigers <tigers at autox.team.net>
To: tigers <tigers at autox.team.net>
Sent: Mon, Nov 9, 2015 5:42 pm
Subject: [Tigers] Steering Wheel Vibration

 

 Recently, while performing maintenance on the wheels of a trailer, it became apparent that a wheel hub had a heavy spot. Having made incremental improvements to the smooth running of my Tiger over the years, and having often wondered whether the hubs could be a source of vibration, that trailer hub made me determined to finally answer the question.
A front hub was removed from the Tiger and cleaned, hoping to use its own wheel bearings (clean and dry) to perform the test. That setup wasn't sensitive enough so I adapted a wheel balancer shaft with cones addressing the bearings on each side of the hub and riding on high quality, dry bearings. The result was that each of my hubs was out of balance on the order of 1/2 ounce. A hole was drilled on the heavy side near the outer perimeter of the backing plate and enlarged until the hub balanced. The final hole on each hub was 7/16".
As the hubs are relatively heavy and much smaller in diameter than tires and wheels, I expected that in the end, this would prove to be an exercise to eliminate the hubs as a source of vibration. On the contrary, the very first test drive revealed a much improved ride with noticeably reduced vibration, mostly in the 60+ mph range where an improvement was most appreciated.
If you would like to steady the steering wheel of your Tiger and improve its ride quality, experience with my car suggests that balancing the front hubs is well worth the effort.
Terry Packer9470018
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