Balancing rims with the center hole cut out

[larryejoh]

I have a set of stock GT rims I am putting on my son's 68 Mustang. I just discovered that the center holes on three of them are cut out by the PO out of center. Is there any way to balance these? The balancer that Walmart have will not center the rims right when the alignment cone is placed in the center hole. Is there anyway to balance using the lug holes for centering. I know that they used to have a spin balancer that would balance it on the car.

 

[BobbyA]

first problem is you went to wal mart. Try to find a Discount Tire in your area an they should have finger plates that bolt to the wheel and then goes on the balancer. Best way to do it.

 

[Rustytruck]

Maybe take the wheels in with the hub and rotor off the car and the wheel bearings out just leaving the races.

 

[Apogee]

Is remachining the wheel centers an option? If so, that seems like the best long term solution...it's not that hard to dial in a center based on a wheel pattern or wheel hoop and then bore it to be true on a milling machine.

 

[73azbronco]

I just had some rims machined, best they could do was bore the hole and it was off a touch, so that's not going to give you a hub centric quality result. And it was $40 for two wheels.

 

[Crawdad]

You may have better luck going to a machine shop. A good machine shop should have a large enuff lathe, such as a La Blonde that can get your center hole centered.

 

[Apogee]

I just had some rims machined, best they could do was bore the hole and it was off a touch, so that's not going to give you a hub centric quality result. And it was $40 for two wheels.

That sucks...did they use a lathe or a mill? Either can be made to work, but they should be able to achieve a bore true to center within +/-.005" all day without even breaking a sweat if they know what they're doing...+/-.001" or .002" if they're really good.

 

[73azbronco]

They know what their doing. They also tried to save me cash so I applaud that. They used a Mill and a bore bit, they had a lathe large enough but no way to properly secure it. And by that I mean, yes, they could have fashioned a centric quality jig with two-three hours shop labor, but I only needed the center bored out a little more to clear a hub for a boat trailer rim. And by off I mean you can't see it but it is off about 1/64th Since ours are not hub centric, it should be fine especially if you balance the tire after.

You might have better luck calling around to see if there are any specialty rim shops in town, they might be able to have the jigs to centric bore a rim.

 

[larryejoh]

I spoke to both Discount Tire and another tire shop in my town and both said they had a "finger plate" that will align the rims on the lug holes. I'll see how it turns out.

 

[Pa PITT]

.. I can't imagine how that could even be a issue.. Sorry .. Spin them an add weights. How could the center hole be off more than . maybe a 1/32 .. Lugs will center it .. Weights will correct it.
.. Sorry what am I missing .. This is new to me..
.. My Running Buddy took a set of 16 Dodge chromes & bored the centers ..We didn't know we had any issues.

 

[Broncobowsher]

Since most wheel balancers center the wheel on the center bore, that being home hacked makes that reverence point garbage.

A good shop will have an adaptor to lugcenter the wheel on the balancer instead of using the center bore. Just like most aftermarket wheels are centered on vehicles. The "finger plate" should work for this odd condition.

 

[suckerpunched]

How about ballast beads inside the tire instead of lead wieghts. anyone else here tried them? I just put them in a set of 33's on slots that had no lip to hold the wieghts on the rim, and no clearance for stick on's between the wheel and calipers. Less than 100 miles on them, but seem to be working fine so far.