I've never heard of it before, but is it common practice to get your hubs etc. balanced or is it unnecessary?
Never heard of doing it, but if you're having an issue it may be a good idea to set up a dial indicator and check the runout. A little warpage on a hub or rotor (never saw a warped drum) can cause vibration, uneven brake wear, pulling to one side,etc.
All the 30s 40s ford drums I've had always have weights on them... that's the reason my wire wheels won't seat up on my 46 drums!!!
Definately on the Buick drums. They can be balanced on a wheel balancer if the mechanic is a buddy. Well worth it.
Ok, never ran into a drum where the factory weight came off or wasn't balanced right...but then again, I have never had a pre-'57 car, either. Good info, thats what I like about this place.
Actually on the Raven's '27 he lost a weight off of one of his drums (original Ford) he was having trouble getting thigs balanced out anyway so we took it to a place that balanced the wheels on the car. Solved the brake drum problem as well as the balancing issue. Of course now his wheels are drum/hub specific. On a steel drum they are tack welded in place and on an aluminum drup they are held on by rivets.
I ran into one aftermarket rear drum for a 72 Chev C10 about 20 years ago that was so far out of balance that you couldn't do anything with it. The only thing that i could figure out was that they must have a mold shift when they cast it. I've seen a lot of drums with a spot machined on the outside surface that was most likely to balance it at the factory.
Yes, sometimes they need balancing. If a wheel/tire is suspect and re-balancing doesn't fix it, it's usually the drum/hub. In my brother's shop in the mid-70s he did. When somebody had a problem with new tire that was balanced off the car and the drum was suspect, he balanced the wheel/tire/hub/drum assembly all at once without removing on the car with a spin-balancing machine. On my wood-spoke wheels I remove the entire assembly, drum included, and set it up on a bubble-balancer using a special fixture I fabricated. Wheel/rim/tire & brake drum all together.
Well here's the reason why I asked. I had to pound the shit out of the hubs to separate them from the disc brakes (out of jag ifs). They were really frozen together and I had to hit em so hard it caused the lip of the hub to distort just a bit. So then I took a file and made the surface where the wheel mounts flat again. I didn't take off very much, but I don't know if it was enough to affect the balance.
Take it to someone with a brake lathe. See if they will let you stay and watch when they spin it. It should be evident if you screwed it up.
"working on the bench " as a professional mechanic. i have had occasion to check out of balance brake drums abd rotors. often it is as a result of a customer complaint about a vibration that "NO CAN FIND" For rears a quick check can be done by removing the wheels and putting the nuts on again (all of them) then running the car in gear on jack stands. if the vibration is still there. you now know it is fromthe rear not the front. Next remove the drums and DO NOT TOUCH THE BRAKES. Repeat the test running it at speeed but now you will have to let it run down by itself. if the vibration is gone then yu know it is ne of the rear drums. A normal wheel balancer will set them uo and check them. A skilled man can balance them too but most wont want to bother. Usually a new one is the easiest solution. If the vibration isnt there with the vehicle jacked up and the wheels off and driving . You dont need to go any further then the drums with nuts on test. After you are satisfied the wheels and tires are erfect, Reove the front drun ms or rotors and check their balance bymounting them ona good wheel balancer. That is when why and how it is done. Don
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