Right front wheel wobble

[John Hendricks]

when i was a kid I worked in an old time gas station-washing windows,checking oil and fixing flat tires.  when the number of weights would get more than 1 or 2 in a spot, we were supposed to deflate the tire, pop the beads and rotate the tire on the wheel a quzrter turn and rebalance. It really makes a difference.  Nowadays.............  oh well I won't bore u with that one.

[36 Ply]

60 mph is pretty good, Tod. My '36 cruises at 52 mph, it sounds unhappy above that speed.

At least one of my wheels has two very long weights on it.

Regards,

Pat O'Connor

[TodFitch]

Tod Fitch- Did you decide to live with your tires, or is there any remedy for this?

There are not a lot of choices for 17-550 tires nowadays, so I am living with them. I did manage to get them reasonably well balanced but it took a lot of wheel weights to do it. And the car runs reasonably smoothly up to 60 MPH (my personal maximum cruise speed in my 33).

[36 Ply]

Plymouths, brucepine and Tod Fitch,

Thanks so much for your input.

Plymouths-thanks for your input on warped rims. So far, I have switched the right front tire with the spare, both tires wobble a bit. I haven't checked the rims yet, as suggested by brucepine. I'm also going to try the other tires,in an attempt to find one that doesn't wobble, and switch it with the right front, to see if that works.

brucepine- I'm going to try your method for checking the wheel rims for trueness.

Tod Fitch- Did you decide to live with your tires, or is there any remedy for this?

As soon as it quits raining, I'm going to pull the '36 out of the garage and do some more testing, using the above suggestions.

If anyone, including those above, have more feedback, I'm all ears.

Thanks to all for the advice.

Pat O'Connor

[TodFitch]

Your test method only shows the tire itself is not true.? To test the wheel rim I do as you did, but stand a cement block next to the wheel and place a long screwdriver on the block so that it is almost touching the wheel rim.? Spin the wheel and note the rim edge and the screwdriver tip gap change.

I bought new tires last year. Before mounting them I decided to check the wheels to see if they needed repair....

All four wheels on the ground turned out to be in specification (1990s Jeep numbers used since I could not find numbers specific to my 1933). And on the bubble balancer all wheels were in balance.

Once I mounted the brand new tires neither of the above was true. Basically the tires were out of round and out of balance. So much for new tires.

Bruce is correct, check your wheels separately from your tires.

By the way Bruce, are you going to get your P6 to "Antique Cars in History Park" in San Jose this Sunday?

[brucepine]

Your test method only shows the tire itself is not true.  To test the wheel rim I do as you did, but stand a cement block next to the wheel and place a long screwdriver on the block so that it is almost touching the wheel rim.  Spin the wheel and note the rim edge and the screwdriver tip gap change.

[FourDoor]

Warped rims were a common? problem on these old cars. I would take the wheel and put it on an axle that does not have a 'wobbly' wheel and take that 'good' wheel and put it in place of the 'bad' one. It should become obvious if you have a warped,out of true, rim or not or a bent axle stub (which I doubt).
A quick repair is just to switch it with the spare. I wouldn't even bother trueing up the warped rim. I would just leave it in the trunk as the spare. Who would know?? ? ?

[36 Ply]

I recently discovered that my right front tire/rim wobbles a bit.

I jacked it up and slowly spun the tire. It wobbles about 1/8 inch every revolution. I deduced this by watching a black line I made on the driveway with a marking pen, while slowly spinning the tire.

I checked the front wheel bearing, it is in proper adjustment. It does not make any unusual (grinding) noise when I rotate the tire.

Other than a bent rim, what are other possible causes for this?

Regards,

Pat O'Connor