My homemade bubble wheel balancer

[Charlie D]

 

Hello All,

Before anyone states the obvious:

(1)    Yes, I do know that it is possible to get wheels balanced at a place that sells/fits tyres.  The tyres on my 3A were balanced by a reputable independent tyre shop 2500 miles 3 years miles ago. Just recently I did my first longish trip on a motorway and I noticed quite severe vibration at 45/55 mph. I suspected tyre imbalance and decided to see if I could check it myself.
(2)     Yes, I know that eBay is awash with “Bubble wheel balancers”, but they seem to range from cheap (£50!) ones that I have read bad reports about, to expensive (£200+) ones.

But isn’t it so much more fun to design and build your own?
(Well, I think so…)

 

After a bit of research I discovered that most of the commercial ones relied on the wheel platform pivoting on a hardened steel point. This point (and where it sits) can wear out especially on the cheap ones. A You Tube modification suggested getting the wheel platform to sit on a large ball bearing and rest the ball bearing on a flat, thick, steel plate.

I set about designing my version around this principle and ended up only having to spend money on a 50mm ball bearing and a 10mm thick steel disc. Total outlay about £20.

The commercial ones also rely on centering the wheel through the central hole, and not via the wheel studs. I thought it better to fix the wheel in the way it would actually be fitted on the car. Centering itself by gradually tightening the wheel nuts.

It was incredibly fortunate that a 50mm steel ball is an almost perfect fit into a TR front hub. It sits slightly lower than it’s equator inside the hub leaving a small rim that can be filled with Araldite to keep the ball in place,
The flat steel plate was Araldited to the support post using slightly undersized washers that fitted into the tube and Araldited  in place and the  plate was glued on top.

I think you can guess from the pictures were all the other bits come from.

Setting up consists of leveling up the post, then leveling up the carrier sitting on the post (Put weights on the lower counter balance (Brake rotors)). You tighten the wheel down and let it come to rest. This can take a quarter of an hour in a garage or all day if done outside with a slight breeze blowing. It is incredibly sensitive.

You end up finding the heaviest point and then do whatever you need to do to get the wheel level.
Sure, it is trial and error, and every time you do it you need to wait for the wheel to stop rocking before you can decide if it is balanced or not.

Best to treat the whole process as a form of meditation and drift away whilst being mesmerized by the movement.

So does it work?
Yes.
I added some weights and took some off and vibration is significantly less than it was.

During my research I discovered that Bob (Lebro) has a homemade vertical wheel balancer.

How does my horizontal version compare with a vertical version?

The vertical balancer is probably a lot easier to make, and I would guess is a lot quicker to balance a wheel.

But with mine I can place weights on the opposite side to the heaviest point and watch to see what happens without having to stick a weight on as part of the trial and error correct weight finding process, which I guess is what Bob has to do with his.

I can just add/remove/move about the weights with ease.

But the biggest difference between a vertical version and my horizontal version is that mine has a certain “Objet d’art” charm about it.

With mine you could place it in the middle of a dinng table, put candles on the wheel studs and turn it into a function decorative work of kinetic art.

A real conversation piece when you invite you friends around for a dinner party.

Charlie.

Edited August 7, 2022 by Charlie D

[BlueTR3A-5EKT]

Ingenious.  
You could probably balance the rear wheels with their respective brake drums.   You would then need to confirm the fitment to maintain the balance.

Peter W

[Charlie D]

Peter,

That’s a very good point. I hadn’t thought of that.

I know Bob had a thread recently where he mentioned that he discovered that his drums were quite a bit out of balance.

Charlie.

[ed_h]

This is brilliant, Charlie.  I wish I'd thought of it before I bought my Harbor Freight balancer.   Mine seems to work OK, but yours is, as you say, a work of art.  Bravo!

Ed

[JochemsTR]

I very much like the idea, just a question, is this suppose to replace the dynamic wheel balancing done at your local garage?

Jochem

[Lebro]

Not completely, but it is usualy good enough.

Bob

[Charlie D]

Hello Jochem,

I agree with Bob. (And I would guess he has had far more experience in, using “Mechanical” balancing than I have.)

I initially kept all the weights that were on my wheels from the shop just to see what happened when I tried it on my balancer.
I then removed some of their weights and added some of mine in different places. I suppose the proper way would have been to remove all the weights and start from scratch, but I was a bit afraid that I might mess the whole thing up if I did that.

What I discovered when trying to get information on this style of balancing was most of the stuff I found was from American forums. It was often mentioned that in the 1950s/60s this was the ONLY way to balance a wheel. The electronics weren’t so plentiful till later.  I get the impression that some of the operatives became very experienced and could get the wheels balanced perfectly.

Something that cropped up many times on the forums from ancient mechanics who had used this form of balancing “Back in the day” was where to place the weights. Obviously, opposite the heavy part of the wheel, but rather than put one weight at 180 degrees to counteract the heavy part, they spaced half the weight needed slightly to the left and right of the 180 degree place.

By how much?

That was where the experience came in, but many people agreed that this was the way to do it.
(Interested to hear other people’s views on this.)

Charlie.

[stuart]

That type of bubble balancer used to be an integral part of race car trackside equipment back in the day too. I bought one out of a garage sale about 40 yrs ago for £20 as the modern type of balancers were just coming in., there were also the type that ran against the tyre on the car as well though they required marking the wheel to the hub as if the wheel was removed and fitted in a different stud position the balance was lost. Cant remember the last time I saw one of those. Useful on early TR7 as the hubs were often out of balance as well.

Stuart.

 

[JochemsTR]

I have no doubt, that when experienced, the wheel can be perfectly statically balanced. However, does this automatically mean, the wheel is also dynamically balanced?

Edited August 8, 2022 by JochemsTR

[Charlie D]

1 hour ago, JochemsTR said:

However, does this automatically mean, the wheel is also dynamically balanced?

Jochem,

I’m never really sure what “Dynamic balancing” means. I’ve read different definitions, but I think it refers to balancing out any side to side movements as well as up and down movements. In which case the answer to your question is “No, I don’t think so.”

 

1 hour ago, stuart said:

Cant remember the last time I saw one of those

Stuart,

Here is one that sold on eBay about two months ago.

I was kicking myself because I missed it by 2 days and it was only a few miles up the road from me.

 

[ed_h]

I think that dynamic balancing claims to correct mass imbalance between the onboard and outboard sides of the wheel, where a static balancer would ignore these.  There are some technical discussions online about how important that is. 

I did static balance only, and haven't seen any reason to do more.

Ed

[Drewmotty]

6 hours ago, JochemsTR said:

 

I very much like the idea, just a question, is this suppose to replace the dynamic wheel balancing done at your local garage?

 

I only balance my TR wheels axially. They are only 5 1/2” wide so any radial imbalance has little impact and I can place all the weights out of sight in the centre of the rim. Dynamic balancing only seems to make a difference on the wider wheels fitted to most modern cars. 

[Tim D.]

22 hours ago, stuart said:

That type of bubble balancer used to be an integral part of race car trackside equipment back in the day too. I bought one out of a garage sale about 40 yrs ago for £20 as the modern type of balancers were just coming in., there were also the type that ran against the tyre on the car as well though they required marking the wheel to the hub as if the wheel was removed and fitted in a different stud position the balance was lost. Cant remember the last time I saw one of those. Useful on early TR7 as the hubs were often out of balance as well.

Stuart.

 

There's a business in silverstone that still balances wheels this way. Had my lotus elan wheels done as they locate on pegs. Slightly frightening having the guy sitting by the wheel while it spun at 70mph on the car.  

Tim

[stuart]

28 minutes ago, Tim D. said:

There's a business in silverstone that still balances wheels this way. Had my lotus elan wheels done as they locate on pegs. Slightly frightening having the guy sitting by the wheel while it spun at 70mph on the car.  

Tim

I know what you mean. Tyreservices in a town near me used them in the early seventies and I had a MK2 Jaguar done like that. I walked away!

Stuart.

[John Morrison]

Ah this is taking me back, often needed an 'On the Car' wheel balancer to cure

a particularly difficult car.

Great machines and always proved successful, went out of fashion with the advent of front wheel drive cars, and I Think,

they were all three phase?

Straightforward to use, and great fun.

John.

[Charlie D]

2 hours ago, John Morrison said:

I Think, they were all three phase?

Hello John,

I’ve spotted about three on UK eBay in the past few months that were all single phase, although I think the truck versions were 3 phase. The big power is only needed to run the motor used to spin the wheel. The electronics use hardly any power.

Most of the eBay ones looked totally knackered (Except the one I missed, of course, which looked perfect, AND just £80.)

However…

As I write I’m working on a homemade version.

Nearly finished, but will it work?

I’ll write a DIY report if it does.

I’m using a frying pan connected to a motor to spin the wheel and one of the problems is getting the frying pan balanced to begin with. (Yes, I have removed the handle.)

Charlie.