The red unit on the ground at the corner of the building, in the middle of the photo
Marc sent me these photos of one that was at this Sunoco station, and it's the first I've even heard of that kind of balancer in all these years. So it's sure time to post about it!
https://autorestorer.com/articles/balance_tires_with_retro_style_pt1-1380#google_vignette
What none of this mentions is WHY balance the wheel on the tire, and that reason is because while on the vehicle, the entire rotating assembly gets balanced, the brakes, bearings, lugs, paint and grease.
Anything that can cause an unbalance gets taken into account.
Hunter came up with this in 1946, and in 1953, GM was getting every Corvette balanced this way.
When I was a kid, in the fifties the Conoco station had one and I was fascinated when Spence, the mechanic was using it.
ReplyDeleteThere were two different styles of on-car balancers and you show some examples of each. One style used an adjustable weight system that you clamp to the wheel, spin up the wheel/tire, and then determine the weight amount and location with the small hand dials as shown on the Corvette photo. My instructor would lean his cheek against the fender and feel the imbalance while tweaking the dials. The other method used a strobe light mechanically triggered by a microswitch clamped to the suspension and the flash of light would visually 'freeze' the tire in place and allow the operator to see the imbalance. When I was in trade school we were taught to use both styles of these on-car balancers. They were a PITA to use as they were pretty worn out at the time and I never saw one used after I left school.
ReplyDeletethanks a bunch for the real life experience info! And for the movie cars in Jersey, I didn't look farther than the source of the info NJ.com that I linked to. I just share the news, unless it's local and could affect me, I don't have time to dig farther into the stuff I post about
DeleteYep! when I started my Vo-Tech training in 1975 we were taught to use one and instructed to place a hand on the fender with one finger lifted and when it stopped vibrating, we could see where the wheel weights were to be added, this was the style that had the unit on the wheel and I think 3 wheels that you adjusted to achieve the balance. I too have never again seen one used. On a side note, we were instructed to blow the asbestos dust off the brakes with compressed air and no protection. Probably why I am so weird today.
ReplyDeleteWhen I went to Wichita Automotive and Electronics Institute in 1983 this is how we balanced all tires on the vehicles.
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