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Tire and Wheel Balancing

cs49230

Member
Messages
65
Location
Brooklyn MI
I want to check the balance of my wheels without the tires and foams. I had to use 1 1/2 oz to get one of my tires to balance and down to only an 1/8 oz on other wheels.


Started with the heavy wheel. Beadlocks came off easy and tire flexes off the locking slot ok. Looking at the foam around the edges, lifting the tire side for visability, I see a void in the foam about 6mm dia and 25mm deep.


Now how do I get the foam and tire to slide off the wheel without damaging components? Best option I envision is using a piece of 4" pvc for the wheel and some 6" pvc for the tire. Setup in a press (trip to Harbor Freight $20) and guide the foam over the beadlocks as I press the wheel out. I don't see this working for re-assembly though.


Come on all you experts what is your solution to remove and replace tires and foams.


"If I can't screw it down I can always screw it up!" :rolleyes:
 

cs49230

Member
Messages
65
Location
Brooklyn MI
Tore down the worst wheel for balancing, had to add 1 1/2 oz of self-stick wheel weights and I want to know why.

Found void areas in my foam. Hole in foam about 5mm by 20mm deep and a couple smaller voids. Checked balance of just wheel and foam after wheel was balanced and don't really see any change in balance.I smeared my putty putting the foam on the wheel after wheel was balanced. So after removing the foam I shot the clay with some clear lacquer to harden it up and stick it better to the wheel. Popsicle sticks between inner tire and outer wheel make a good slide to push the tire and foam back on the wheel. Notes:popsicle sticks worked fine for working with foam only tire stretch was too much and even broke sticks.Putting lacquer over the putty put a thin shell over soft putty and still smeared out of position when mounting the foams and tires. Ended up putting some duct tape over the putty which worked pretty well. DSC00253.jpg

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DSC00253.jpg

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cs49230

Member
Messages
65
Location
Brooklyn MI
Observations during my wheel balancing venture.

A 4" pvc pipe about 7"-8" long makes a good press. Break the beads loose and tuck one tire side in and other out of the wheel rims. Set the wheel on top of the pipe making sure the tire is over the outside of the pipe so you don't catch your bead between the tire and pipe. Press down on the tire around the wheel. The tire and foam slides right off onto the pipe.

After doing two wheels, the weight is always over one of the mold seams. They balanced out between 1/8oz and 1/4oz. The first wheel was the one with 1 1/2oz of weight in the wheel. After putting the foam and tire back on the wheel I had to still add 3/8oz for tire balance. I can't rotate the foam and tire on the wheel to try different positions without remounting in different wheel alignments.

You can easily remove the inner bead and stretch back enough foam and tire to insert weight between foam and wheel. This should hold position great and I don't have to worry about the weights falling off.
 
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