Steel wheel balance (Excessive weight required?)

[Richard G.]

Today I had my new reproduction Goodyear tires mounted on the factory steel rims. Three of the four tires required what I expected for balance weights.
One wheel took three large weights (two may be 1.5 oz each and the other an ounce). I thought I could tell from the pictures but the light was getting bad. Sorry for the lack of the exact weight installed. I will recheck when I have time. However the fact remains this one tire required a lot of weight and the installed even rotated the tire on the rim to see if it would help. It did not! Of course it would be best if this tire was mounted on the rear.

What would you recommend in this case? Would it be reasonable to ask for a replacement tire or is this just something one has to live with?



Balance weights typical of the other tires.


I thought I would share a picture of the new set of Knockoff's with 205 radials I will use for everyday driving. Went with the bolt on style wheel for safety. Also went with the black painted centers i.e. the 1965-66 wheel. I thought the black would set off the wheels nicely from the Ermine White.
They are not for judging so I took some liberties. Nice looking wheels even after all those years. They got it right!



Thanks
Rick

[Joe L.]

Re: Steel wheel balance (Excessive weight required?)

Today I had my new reproduction Goodyear tires mounted on the factory steel rims. Three of the four tires required what I expected for balance weights.
One wheel took three large weights (two may be 1.5 oz each and the other an ounce). I thought I could tell from the pictures but the light was getting bad. Sorry for the lack of the exact weight installed. I will recheck when I have time. However the fact remains this one tire required a lot of weight and the installed even rotated the tire on the rim to see if it would help. It did not! Of course it would be best if this tire was mounted on the rear.

What would you recommend in this case? Would it be reasonable to ask for a replacement tire or is this just something one has to live with?



Balance weights typical of the other tires.


I thought I would share a picture of the new set of Knockoff's with 205 radials I will use for everyday driving. Went with the bolt on style wheel for safety. Also went with the black painted centers i.e. the 1965-66 wheel. I thought the black would set off the wheels nicely from the Ermine White.
They are not for judging so I took some liberties. Nice looking wheels even after all those years. They got it right!



Thanks
Rick

Rick------


GM specified that if more than 5 oz of weight was required to balance a wheel/tire assembly, then either the wheel or tire should be rejected.

However, in your case, we don't know if the source of the imbalance is the wheel or the tire unless you know that this wheel balanced before with minimal weight.

[William B.]

Re: Steel wheel balance (Excessive weight required?)

I have found most tire manufactures will replace a tire, if 5oz or more are required. I had the same issue with tires bought from Kelsey Tires, called them they exchanged my defective tire payed shipping both ways, great people to deal with.

[Terry D.]

Re: Steel wheel balance (Excessive weight required?)

Try having them rotate the tire 180 degrees, sometimes you get the heavy side of the tire and the wheel on the same side. If that doesn't help I would want a new tire. They can also check the balance of the rim before they mount new tire.

[Rick A.]

Re: Steel wheel balance (Excessive weight required?)

check the rim FIRST

[Richard G.]

Re: Steel wheel balance (Excessive weight required?)

I confirmed total tire balance required was 3.8 oz. Not thrilled but I guess I'll live with it. The 5oz recommendation is exactly what I needed before contacting the manufacture.
The installers were really good. They did rotate the tire on the rim and then attempted to balance it a second time with the similar results.
So I suspect the issue is with the tire not the rim. Two other factors point to the tire. It is heaver than the rim and it is at a larger radius so it the same amount of weight will has a larger affect on the balance. I also had all original rims inspected for straightness but not balance.
I included a better picture of the weighted rim.

[Terry D.]

Re: Steel wheel balance (Excessive weight required?)

Doesn't rotating the tire with same results make you think it is the rim? Or were the weights the same but on other side of rim? Could also try switching rims with one of the others!

[Gene M.]

Re: Steel wheel balance (Excessive weight required?)

Typical you don’t see 2 1/2 oz exceeded. Having the three weights as shown will draw attention if judged. More common is 1 1/2 oz. Understand these original tires were a “light weight” structure compared to today’s radials.

Suggest for judging remove two.

[Mark E.]

Re: Steel wheel balance (Excessive weight required?)

I hadn't heard of GM's 5 oz quality limit before. That's a lot more than I like to see but understandable if you want to minimize quality rejects. Wouldn't modern tires have significantly better quality?

I don't like more than a single 2 oz weight on either side, and I say that while shopping tires. I also don't like multiple weights adjacent to each other. Sometimes a shop will use two smaller weights because they don't have the larger weight in stock. I had two separate instances recently of a new tire requiring more weight than desired. In each case the retailer (Discount and Tire Rack) agreed to use another tire, so they understand a customer who is more discerning. Most people don't know or care.

[Richard G.]

Re: Steel wheel balance (Excessive weight required?)

Terry;
When the tire was balanced the first time both the tire and rim were marked with the location of the balance weights. Then the tire was rotated 180 degrees in relation to the rim. The location and amount of weight required to balance the assembly, the second time, was almost in the exact same spot in relation to the tire. If it was the rim that was out of balance the required balance weights would have stayed the same in relation to the rim. Or significantly increased or decreased if the unbalance was split between the two.
Weights were only installed on the back side, it's my understanding that's how GM did it. Yes, I plan on having the car judged with these tires and wheels. I could remove the extra weights so it would look correct. However, I plan on driving the car to at last one of the meets. That leaves me with having to replace the tire. I will check with the manufacture and see it I can get it replaced?
One would think having the tires installed would be simple!
Rick

[Gary B.]

Re: Steel wheel balance (Excessive weight required?)

Rick & Mark,

The 5-oz limit is spelled out in the AIM. Yes, one typically sees much less than 5 oz, but given that the 5-oz limit exists there must have been tires back in the day that required 4.5 or 5.0. So, 3.8 oz out-of-balance doesn't concern me. But GM would balance to 3.5 or 4.0., not 3.8. To balance with a total of 3.5 oz or 4.0 oz should require only two weights (a 1.5 and a 2.0; or two 2.0s), so I wouldn't expect to see three weights if two would work. If you switch from three weights to two, no judge should consider a deduct.

Gary

[Richard G.]

Re: Steel wheel balance (Excessive weight required?)

Gary;
Thanks for the information. Much I didn't know about this supposedly simple process. The shop balanced the tire with the weights I provided. Seems my best solution would be to look for a couple larger weights.
Rick