Bought some ( $ 279.99 Each) 15 x 4.5 ET Gasser wheels from Speedway Motors, mounted some Coker Firestone F560 tires. Good..bad..Good ,Bad, GREAT news. Good 1: Wheels came in after 3 days, and looked great on the Roadster. Bad 1: Wheels appeared to wobble or be bent Good 2; Speedway says.....No problem. Send them back. Bad 2: The wheels were machined poorly and took 3.5 oz to balance. Great news: I am blessed to enjoy another day...It's just a wheel. On the inside of the wheel, it was machined about 1/4". 180 degrees around it was machined 3/4". Marked it with a red pen. Not one to complain, but it is real obvious to the eye and when "high dollar" front runners require over 3...yes three ounces of stick on lead to balance, their is a problem. Thanks kindly and respectfully to Speedway motors for their service. They are sending me an addition set....I am just out $ 36 for the mounting .balancing and head scratching. Hopefully you can learn from my ET gasser wheel experience. Made in the USA is no where on the box. Thought they were. anyone know ?
I bought Rocket 10 spokes, mounted and balanced on our new $5500.00 state of the art balancer. One wheel took just under an ounce the other took, get this, NO weights at all! Drive smooth as glass! These are made in China but have at least 6 inspection marks on the back side, Rocket says they are manufactured to DOT specs, and I believe it! A job well done Rocket Racing wheels!
Back in the 60's 70's and early 80's a lot of "Mags" were cast aluminum and heavier as well the machining marks you see was not real uncommon.We balanced a lot of these by sitting the wheel inside out on a bubble balancer you would "split the weights" meaning you would separate the weights 6" to 8" apart if it took more than 3 oz total we would deflate the tire and turn it 90 degrees at a time till we got the lightest balance factor,comebacks were almost nonexistent.Most tire mounters today go by the computer balancer and don't know this,I have old E.T's from the 70's and I showed a kid at Pep Boys the 90 degree trick and 2 tires required ZERO weights.
Thanks. Agree. We tried this with one of the wheels and 3.5 oz is the best we could due. With todays technolgy........their is no excuse for poor casting and machining with a reputable , high priced wheel company.
It wouldnt surprise me if Good old speedy Bill was copying the GOOD ET wheels, and having real cheap shitty ones made in China. Remember, the Chinese can make good stuff, but only as good as the customer wants, in Speedways case, its always crap!
Use Dynabeads and you want have to balance them at all - solved the problem with my 1960s US Indy five spokes. After repeated visits to America's Tire, having lost stick on wheel weights - the only kind they can use on these wheels - I finally got fed up and searched here on the HAMB and found Ryan's thread on Dynabeads. Pain in the ass to get the beads in the tires but no more vibration - even left the remaining stick on weights on the wheel. When they eventually fall off it will make no difference. The Dynabeads will balance the wheels dynamically anyway....
I got mine at Team III wheels about 4 years ago. Mounted them my self on the floor of my shop. No problems.
The 90 degree trick works most of the time. I used to work in a factory that manufactured truck wheels and on those wheels we punched a dimple at the low point of the wheel. Tire manufacturers would mark the highest runout and the assembler would match up the two marks to achieve the lowest possible runout of the wheel/tire combo. This would make the tire run true and use less weight to balance. While the above comment addresses 'Radial' runout (up and down), your issue seems to be 'Lateral' runout (side to side)and would indeed appear to be a machining or casting issue. Good luck!
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