Balancing brake drums

[grumppyoldman]

Have any of you had brake drums balanced? Am still trying to get rid of front wheel shimmy, just had front end work done yesterday. The front end adjustments made it worse than ever, cant drive through it like before. New tires were just balanced, I'm just wondering if the drums are causing the shimmy since they are the only thing that has not been balanced. Don't know if the drum, rim and tire could be balanced together, I've never tried it or don't know if a tire shop could, or would do it. What are your thoughts on this? Al

[V8COOPMAN]

Maybe an OLD tire shop with a floor-mounted spin balancer could at least do the fronts, and then mark (index) the wheel/lug positions. Did you say earlier that you have Coker tires? If so, many of them have come 'out of round' at no extra charge. DD

[fordwife]

Back in the day a lot of shops used a Hunter wheel balancer that would spin the wheel on the car and balance the whole assembly. Maybe you can find an old time shop that still has one of these.

[Andy]

I have a Hunter on the car balancer but I don't know how to use it. I use it to spin tires up to check them. You could check the drums on a bubble balancer. I have one of them too. I have taken the seals out of hubs and balanced the drums on the car. Just keep playing with it untill it does not seek a position.

[Bob C]

How about trying balancing beads?


Bob

[Brian]

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Aren't you running needle roller style kingpins? That'll do it!

[51 MERC-CT]

Originally Posted by Brian

Aren't you running needle roller style kingpins? That'll do it!

That'll do what??

[Brian]

Shimmy

[grumppyoldman]

Yes I have the needle type king pins I installed last year, I've heard they were not that good. Made the steering better, but I could give up some easier steering for a more stable ride. I do have the Coker tires, haven't checked for out of round yet, will do that. The alignment of the front made it worse than ever before, don't know what they did, they are closed today. Going to measure the toe in to see how much they changed it from what it was. Grasping for straws now. Al

[51 MERC-CT]

Originally Posted by Brian

Shimmy

That's amazing because I have had king pin needle bearings installed for over 15 years without any issues.

[34fordy]

I believe it is highly unlikely that the brake drums could cause the car to be so bad that you could not drive the car--I do not know if your alignment person was competent or not--If you just put new tires on and the problem worsened it appears they could well be the cause--When I bought my 34 Fordor 4 years ago I could not get past 30 mph as the front fenders were bouncing terribly--I replaced the kingpins and adjusted the toe-in to where it should be--I checked to make sure all of the wheels were relatively true--No improvement--I did not suspect the new tires that came with the car could be out of round--To make a long story short, I took the tires to John Warden in Green Mountain, Iowa to put on his tire shaver to make sure that they were round--When he was done I removed all the weights on the rims and remounted the wheels to the car--No more shimmy or shaking at any speed--There are no balance weights on any of the wheels--Was I just lucky? Maybe--
I do know that finding someone to do good front end work is not easy--It takes time and some patience to get things tuned right--

[JSeery]

Have you tried different tires on the front, I don't remember?

[Kurt in NJ]

When the wheels were balanced how were they mounted on the machine---modern wheels can be balanced using centering cones, they are 'hub centric", the old wheels the center hub hole may not be center, they center with the lugs---the special lug centering adapter needs to be set up on the machine---if they bought the option, and know how to use it

[aussie merc]

defiantly find someone that can on car balance brake drums often have small weights spotted on to them ive even seen them on the brakedrums on trucks as for having work done on the front end and it made it worse i would be back on their doorstep raising hell and asking for the before and after settings to find out what they actally did if they did anything

[Paul Bennett]

On my search for new www tires I found many references to Coker tires which could not be balanced. It's best to stick around the balancing process area to assure you really get proper results. Some have reported unscrupulous mechanics giving the thumbs up although they couldn't achieve success. (BTW I chose Calli tires - better recommendations and considerably cheaper than Coker. I didn't chose because of price - it was a bonus.)

[V8COOPMAN]

Originally Posted by aussie merc

As for having work done on the front end and it made it worse i would be back on their doorstep raising hell and asking for the before and after settings to find out what they actally did if they did anything

You know, the only thing 'adjustable' (without a torch) on an early Ford is the toe-in. I find it hard to believe you took it somewhere that you couldn't stand there and watch. I find it hard to believe that you didn't drive straight back into that shop once you drove it around the block. I'd be jumping up and down on SOMEBODY's desk! Keep us updated! DD

[eddie48]

Many years ago I worked in a large tire shop. We always balanced front tires with the brake drums attached on a floor mounted spin balancer. As a bonus, the customer also had his/her wheel bearings cleaned, checked and re-packed. We got to see the brake shoes, which resulted in more work for the shop...brake jobs.

[john in illinois]

I have found a lot of tire balance and shimmy problems are caused by out of round wheel or tire.
industry standard limits are
Wheels radial .040. lateral .045
tires. radial. .060. lateral. .080

My 35 wheels meet this and my original 40 wheels also.

John

[RobR'35]

If u have all the same size tires.
For tryings sake. Rotate front tires and wheels with the rear and see if the results are the same.

[Kahuna]

ANYONE should be able to set Toe-In