Does anyone know of a backyard tinkerer way to balance a front wheel assembly?

 

There is a technique called static balancing.

You have a bar that goes through the wheel assembly, and a couple cones on each end that secure the wheel centered on the bar.

You place the wheel on a pair of rollers, and rotate the wheel 45 degrees and let go. The heavy spot of the wheel settles to the bottom. You add weight to the top of the wheel assembly, rotate 45 degrees and let it go. Repeat until the wheel stops in no particular spot.

I use the one that came with my nomar tire changer. http://www.nomartirechanger.com/and the wheels are rock solid well beyond 100mph.

OH, one hint. If you are doing your own tire mounting and balancing, take time to balance the RIM/ROTOR/if its a back tire, Pulley without the tire. Mark the heavy spot. Convention says the valve is the heavy spot on the wheel, I have found this almost NEVER to be true.

The tires I use most are Metzlers, and they are marked in the light spot with a red dot in the wheel. Make sure the dot on the tire and the dot on the rim line up, and you'll have a pretty well balanced assembly right out of the gate.



Good Luck.

RJ

 

Here's how I have done it. It may not be as accurate as a balancing machine, but I've never had any problems. Take two kitchen chairs of the same height and put newspapers on them to protect them. With the axle in the wheel, rest the ends of the axle on the chairs. Give the wheel a spin and wait until it stops. Put a chalk mark at the top of the tire where it has stopped. Repeat this several times. If the chalk marks are fairly randomly distributed, then there are no heavy spots and you're good to go. If you have several chalk marks close together, then you've got a heavy spot 180 degrees away.Temporarily tapea stick on balancing weight where the chalk marks are and repeat until the marks are coming up randomly. Fix your weights permanently and you're done.

 

I use this with jack stands:

www.marcparnes.com/

 

Thanks a bunch!! Looks like I have a new project this weekend

 

Might want to check out Dyna Beads from Innovative Balancing: http://www.innovativebalancing.com/motorcycle.htm

I recently installed new front & rear wheels/tires& after reading a lot of info on the web, decided to install the beads.

Beads are in, but bad weather is here so no test drive yet.

Benefits: inexpensive, fairly easy install, eliminates ugly external weights.