Problems with my homemade tire balancer
 

Matt gave me the idea about building something to spin the front tires at high speed in the garage and check balance. He gave it to me too late Thursday afternoon and I was off Friday so it had to sit until today,
Well today I built something.
I started with a heavy aluminum base the would sit nicely on the floor, I used a 1/3 horse motor mounted to the base and a 3 1/2 inch diameter roller running directly off the motor. The whole unit looks professional, is quit sturdy and slides under the wheel after jacking it up. The roller is to run along the tread bring the wheel up to speed. The motor turns at 1720 rpm.
Well after completing the unit , well almost. I calculated the speed of a 3.5 inch roller turning at 1720 rpm against a 24 inch tire and I get 20 mph.
Big deal, 20 mph. I could spin that by hand.
I am dissappointed that it wasn't faster. I will finish hooking up the switch and give it a spin at 20 mph and see if the hood shakes at all. Sure is a long way from the 100 mph I was hoping to be spinning at.
Another one of those projects that didn't turn out as planed. :confused: :confused:

Re: Problems with my homemade tire balancer (norvalwilhelm)
 

Sounds like you need a blower on the little motor. :jester
Or at least a bigger cam and headers. :lol:


[Modified by Fevre, 9:18 PM 7/21/2003]

Re: Problems with my homemade tire balancer (norvalwilhelm)
 

biggest problem is the suspension of the car will not allow the axel to move much...so how is the off balance detected??? I can see you'd need high rpm's before the centrifugal force would be enough to get a reading...then there is ....well convert that into weight measures....placed where???

I notice wheel balancers have those shafts there on springs so they are easily moved.....

but then again, Years ago with narrow steel wheels, I got just as good if not better results with my own bubble balancer than a LOT of shops....

haven't done that in years though....don't even have the balancer anymore...

GENE