Re: Tars balunced?

["Graydon D. Stuckey" <graydon@apollo.gmi.edu>]

On Thu, 22 Feb 1996, Robert Phillips wrote:

> I have had a vibration in the steering wheel of a certain un-named rotary
> engined vehicle of Japanese origin.  

That doesn't sound like a Quattro there Bob, or is that Robert now?

> The tire guy says "At what speed?"
> 
> Bob (me) says "Ohhh, about 75-80 and up..."

Last time that happened to me, I lied... "Oh... just a little over 80"  
100-110 was the truth.

> The tire guys says "My machine, and most other machines on the market will
> not balance a tire above about 55-60 or so."
> 
> My question is:  Where in the hell does everyone who frequents the Autobahns
> and/or prowls the US at stellar speeds get their tires balanced?  Or do they
> just deal with it??

The tire machine may balance at the equivalent of 55-60 mph, but it 
really doesn't matter too much what speed they balance at.  The tire 
machine must be calibrated to balance down to low levels, and the real 
biggy is that the tooling that centres the wheel on the spindle must be 
perfect.  If your balancing tech will humour you, have him rotate the 
wheel on the tooling, and try it again.  Do this in 90 degree increments, 
and you will see if the machine is round or not.  You will also see if 
the thing is repeatable.

	My blower supplier balances at 1600rpm but the blower turns at 
over 4500rpm in the car.  As long as the balancer does his job, the 
blower is fine at the higher speeds.

Later,								
Graydon D. Stuckey								
graydon@apollo.gmi.edu								
Flint, Michigan   USA
'86 Audi 5000 CS Turbo Quattro, GDS Racing Stage II				
'85 Mazda RX7 GS 12A-leaning-towards-a-13B-soon