On my old A roadster (which my Brother now owns) I had converted it to juice brakes. The car has 33-34 17" wire wheels, I bought the spacer rings and it was all set to go with new brakes, turned drums, etc. My Brother is finishing the chassis and last night went to bolt the wheels on the car. Problem is, the very outside of the wheel center hits a factory wheel weight... has anyone else ever had this problem? Can those weights be removed? Will he have to run different drums? I looked through all my drums and the only ones that do not have those weights are the 1940-1941 drums. Any help would be appreciated. I did a search, but they are all talking about the spacer rings...we have that covered so lets not get into that
Knock the weights off with a chisel and hammer? I did this to all my drums for my 19 wires. I was told to do this by a model a restorer who knows way more then I will in this lifetime about Early Ford iron. Now if there is a weight on the wire wheel like it seems upon re-reading your post I have never seen a weight welded to the wire wheel for balancing. Seems you could grind it off then have the wheels balanced like a modern wheel by having the lead balast weights added on the outer edge.
I ran into the same problem on my 16" wheels on Juice drums... I was told to knock off the drum weights... I can't see how that would solve the issue but start a new problem of the drum not balancing. So I ended up with some 40 hub/drums from Larry!! They don't have the weights on them where they will hit the wheel.
You could possibly also knock the weight off and bubble balance the drum by drilling. (oppsite where the weight was likely) Just a thought, never done it...
Just knock em off, had my coupe up to 75mph and its not too scary well for me anyway, passenger is a different story.
That sounds like an idea, too. This is an A roadster on an A frame with a 21 stud in it. It won't be lightning fast and driving 85 MPH all day...but it's gotta be safe and ride decent. Also trying to avoid changing drums...these are turned, new races, painted and installed! I think we may try removing the weights and running it...if it vibrates, we can go from there.
Knock the weights off and run them on tire balancing machine And instead of add weight,remove it with drilling holes.
Ditto, remove the weights and balance wheels / drums as an assembly. Either on, or off car is good. 4TTRUK
He beat me to it. If you have a friend in a driveshaft shop they might be able to spin them and balance them too. You could also knock the weight off and make a lower profile weight that was a bit longer but not as tall that weighed the same and tack it on in place of that weight or just mark the spot on the drum and add that amount of weight to the rim in the same relative spot when you bolt the wheel on the hub.
This is a common problem with wire wheels and late drums. Either knock the weights off or switch to 40-41 drums. Neal
Most of the drums I have had the balance weights on the outer drum areas. I have one rear hub with the balance weight on the hub flange surface. The only way you can use this with a wire wheel is to possibly pop off the weight and re weld it or JB Weld glue it to the outer edge of the drum in the same area. Because these weights are heavy I dont think that you could drill enough material away in the offending area to get the hub to balance without creating a problem. Your best bet may be to just pop the weight off and have the drum and wheel balanced on a bubble balancer as a unit. This will mean that when the wheel is removed it must be reinstalled at the same index position on the drum.
I think I will just knock them off. If it vibrates, I'll just have the tire, wheel, and drum balanced on the car. Thanks for everyone's advise
75 year old drums ,prolly not in balance anyway....Bill aka Tnomoldw ''I wanna go where the lights are low where I can go'n spend my dough an dance with the dolly with the wooden leg''
As others have said, I had the same problem on my 36 pickup. I just knocked the weights off and had the tires balanced. Never noticed any vibration but I didn't ever really go over 70 in it.
So does anyone know the trick for getting the weights off? I figured a chisel, but that isn't working to good.
Took mine off with a hammer and chisel, be a little aggressive. The drums are pretty strong, I had to break the rear drums off my model a rearend when i first rebuilt it because they were beyond rusted up and I beat the hell out of them to break them to get them off. I had another good set of drums turned and ready to replace em'.
Hotrod-40, You might try drilling the spot welds on the balance weights,then use the hammer and chisel to finish it off. ..................... Jack
So here is what I wound up doing. You would think it wouldn't work, but everything clears pretty well. This is what I started with Drilled the spot welds Welded them in the same spot, but inside the drum Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad