On Car Balancing....was: RE: [Shotimes] Shimmy

[BJamesjr@aol.com]

> Can you give me more information on this?  Like the> procedures and step-by-step method of balancing, as> well as how you have the wheel spinning at 70+mph? > Thanks.  Much appreciated..       
We did this about 30 years ago.  We had a machine with a big electric motor in it and a wheel that you put against the car wheel to spin it up to speed, something like 90 mph.  There was also a mechanism that clipped to the wheel in place of a hubcap.  It had a shaft with some small rings on it sticking out, (almost like a helmet for the Jetsons).  The rings controlled a mechanism inside of this big hubcap to move weight around to different parts of the wheel.  One of the rings would move weight one direction, the other would move it the other direction.  One ring would add weight, the other would subtract weight.  So you would spin the wheel up to speed then with your fingertips you would grab one or the other of the rings to adjust weight and position until you got the wheel to run smooth.  When you stopped the wheel there were indicator arrows that told how much weight and where to put it.  Almost everything back then was rear wheel drive so this machine was used on the front wheels.  For the rear wheels you would jack up one side so the other wheel was still on the ground.  You would put the car in gear and run it up to 40+ mph.  Because of the spider gears in the differential the wheel that was off the ground would actually be spinning about 90 mph.  You would use the George Jetson cap to balance the wheel, then do the same thing to the other side. > On a stock 95'MTX, which wheel would be the driving> wheel and which would be safe to have on the floor.. > I'm not sure how it works, so I would love it if you> helped me out
Theoretically both wheels get torque until one breaks loose, then it spins.  You could do both wheels the same way- jack up the left side and spin that wheel, then jack up the right side and spin that wheel.
I always thought that with the SHO's lubrication weakness for the spider gears that this procedure could cause the spider gears to fail.  Maybe the people with experience (George) have shown that it works.