[TR] tired of tire stores

[mark.jones at exxonmobil.com]

Jim,

I had a problem with tires last spring.  I replaced a worn out set of
155/80R13 tires on my Spitfire with T rated 175/70R13 tires.  Well, I got
such a shimmy and shaking above 55 mph and took the car back figuring I had
a tire way out of balance.  The tire shop checked all the tires and found
that it was my rims that were all out of true and changing to a stiffer,
wider tire was probably exacerbated the problem (stiffer sidewalls not
flexing like the previous tire).  So, I bought a set of alloy rims and the
problem has disappeared.

Randall is also correct that these are lug-centric rims and that if the
centre hole is damaged or bent than that will affect the balance as well,
which was probably part of my original rim's problem as well.  Funny, all
my cars, new and old, except the TR7, had lug-centric rims, yet no one
locally balances by the lugs, all by the hub.

Mark


From: <jimmuller at rcn.com>
Subject: [TR] tired of tire stores

For the last month or so I've been chasing a problem with one or more tires
on the GT6.  Well actually, I've had all four of them on the GT6, but been
at tire shops chasing a tire problem.  One at least, probably the RF, is
out of balance and/or out of round.  At certain speeds I can see the RF of
the bonnet hopping up and down and feel it in the steering.  Eventually
that side's latch will pop open.