Do-it-yourself wheel balancing the old fashioned way, on a machine and with granules: how to check

Why balancing is needed

Uneven tire wear or damage to the disc leads to imbalance, that is, an imbalance in the distribution of wheel mass relative to the horizontal and vertical planes. There are two types of imbalance:

Static, when the axis of rotation shifts relative to the axis of inertia and begins to move the center of gravity up and down.
Dynamic, when the axis of rotation intersects with the axis of inertia, disrupting the horizontal distribution of the wheel mass. The disk makes a figure eight while the car is moving.

There are two types of imbalance: static and dynamic

Imbalance causes the wheels to vibrate while driving. Wheel imbalance, especially when driving at high speed, worsens handling, increases the braking distance, and leads to premature wear of chassis parts.

Unbalanced wheels cause loss of control when driving at high speed. But even if an accident does not happen, constant vibration causes the hub bearing to become unusable, and over time, the entire chassis system of the vehicle breaks down.

The purpose of the procedure is to restore balance to the wheels during rotation. The result of balancing is a uniform distribution of wheel mass relative to the axes of rotation.

Errors

Balancing machine errors and possible solutions are given below:

When starting, the device gives an error and does not start the shaft - you need to check the housing latch. If this does not help, clean the dirt from the corresponding internal sensor.
When turned on, the machine does not start - check the socket and switch. If necessary, replace elements.
Line malfunction. To check, you need to install the stamped wheel and pull out the measuring device. If discrepancies with the ruler readings are noticeable, calibrate it according to the instructions.
During operation, the device turns itself off - most likely, a microcrack has appeared in the board. The part needs to be replaced.

How often to carry out

There are no clear and specific recommendations for all cars on the frequency of balancing. It all depends on the operating conditions of the vehicle, the condition of the wheels, and other factors. Experts recommend balancing:

While changing tires. In reputable service stations, the procedure is included in the price of the car.
If the wheel hits an object or falls into a hole. Such situations lead to disc damage and wheel imbalance.
After 15,000 km. During the season, few car enthusiasts accumulate such a number of kilometers, so a standard car only needs balancing when changing tires.
Every 8,000 km for lovers of an aggressive driving style.
Before traveling over 1500 km.

DIY wheel balancing machine - Metals, equipment, instructions

Wheel balancing is one of the measures that ensures vehicle stability on the road and affects traffic safety. Many car owners believe that high-quality balancing can only be done by service station specialists.

They are partly right, but it is not always possible to turn to specialists, and you cannot delay the procedure. In this situation, you can balance the wheels yourself in a garage.

There are ways to carry out this procedure without professional equipment.

Signs of Imbalance

The main signal of imbalance is the appearance of vibration. The intensity of vibration transmitted into the cabin depends on the degree of imbalance. Sometimes at speed the car begins to literally tremble with its entire body.

The nature of the vibration indicates which wheels are unbalanced:

the front ones give shock to the steering wheel;
the rear ones make the rear seats vibrate.

Other signs of imbalance include increased fuel consumption, tire noise when driving, uneven tire wear, and regular flat tires.

Principle of operation

The main task of the balancing machine is to determine the balance of the geometric center of the wheel with its mass. An unbalanced part makes any job difficult and can lead to serious damage. Eliminating imbalance allows you to:

Increase the service life of bearings.
Prevent premature wear of tires.
Increase the service life of suspensions.

There are several options by which you can correct imbalance of wheels or other parts:

Balancing rings - used in the process of repairing metalworking machines.
Adjusting screws - special pins are screwed into the unbalanced part, through which it is adjusted.
Drilling is the most popular balancing option. This is done by creating holes that change the weight of the parts being processed.

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Balancing methods

Using the advice of experienced drivers, you can carry out balancing yourself the old fashioned way without using a special machine. This will take more time than a service technician would spend, but it will help save money.

If desired, wheel balancing can be done independently in a garage.

To perform the procedure yourself, you will need the following equipment and materials:

jack;
balancing weights;
chalk or marker;
a set of keys.

Interesting! To balance wheels on cast or forged wheels, it is advisable to purchase self-adhesive weights. But in winter, such weights can come unstuck due to temperature changes.

Balancing weights are required for balancing

Without removing the wheel

The self-balancing process consists of the following steps:

Preparatory. The wheels are cleaned of dirt and stones stuck in the tires, the caps are removed, the pressure in the tire is reduced, and old weights are removed. The jack is installed on one side of the vehicle, freeing 2 wheels. Check the free rotation of the wheels. If the wheel is difficult to spin, you need to undo the cotter pin and loosen the hub nut.
Determination of an easy point. The wheel is turned counterclockwise and waited for it to stop. Mark the top point. Then turn the wheels clockwise and mark the top point again. The midpoint between the two marks is the light point.
Installation of weights. Using a hammer, weights weighing from 10 to 45 grams are placed on the found point, starting with the light ones. After this, they spin the wheel and wait for it to stop. The weights should be at the bottom. If it turns out wrong, the light weights are removed and heavier ones are added. It is not recommended to use more than 60 grams of weight on one wheel.
Static balancing. As soon as the weights are at the bottom after stopping, they begin to move them apart in different directions. The wheel begins to rotate and the weights move apart. The goal of the process is to ensure that the wheel stops in a different position each time. Once this starts to happen, the weight is distributed evenly, that is, static balance is achieved.

The procedure is carried out in this sequence with each wheel. To check the correctness of the balancing, you need to drive the car at least ten kilometers at a speed of more than 90 km/h. If you don’t feel any jolts or tapping while moving, it means everything was done correctly. If the procedure is performed incorrectly, specific shocks to the steering wheel appear.

For your own confidence, at the first self-performed balancing, you can undergo diagnostics at a service station. If the specialists confirm that everything was done correctly, in the future you can carry out the procedure yourself.

Important! Self-balancing in the garage is only permissible if there is a static imbalance. Eliminating dynamic imbalance requires the use of equipment. Experts recommend contacting a service center if your car has worn tires and old bent wheels. Without special equipment, it is impossible to balance such wheels yourself.

At a homemade stand

You can make the balancing process easier by making a homemade stand in the garage. In this case, you do not have to remove the brake pads from the wheel and loosen the step nut.

A homemade stand simplifies the process of wheel balancing

The stand is mounted from an old hub with a working bearing. The hub is installed on the frame so that the wheel rotates freely and the entire structure is firmly held on the surface. It is convenient to use vertical metal posts as a frame, between which the wheel is attached. Further balancing actions coincide with the previous method of performing the procedure.

On the machine

Even an experienced motorist in a garage carries out balancing “by eye”. Therefore, there can be no complete confidence in the correctness of the process. In specialized workshops, balancing is performed on computer-controlled machines.

Modern service stations are equipped with CNC balancing machines

The machine consists of a cone-shaped support for mounting a wheel, a rotating electric motor and sensors. The wheel rotates when performing tire mounting, and at the same time the computer detects vibration and pressure. Sensor readings help to accurately calculate the weight and location of weights.

The workshops are equipped with two types of machines:

Manual - in which the master measures the wheel with a ruler and manually enters the data.
Automatic - information is read by sensors and displayed on the monitor in digital or graphical form.

Based on the type of supports used, machines are divided into:

Soft, measuring wheel parameters, taking into account the vibrations of the supports.
Rigid, measuring pressure and rotor phase.

Interesting! On rigid machines you can test various parts, but the quality and accuracy of measurements is reduced for this reason.

Most modern services are equipped with automatic balancing machines. The master puts the wheel on the shaft, tightens it with bolts and unscrews it. Sensors determine the points of axial runout. The computer determines the intensity of the push and calculates the mass of the load that must be attached to the calculated point. The computer will also inform you if the wheel cannot be balanced.

Balancing with granules

One of the newest methods of wheel balancing is the use of special granules instead of weights. The essence of the technique is to pour special granules into the tire, which slide while driving in the internal space. This free movement eliminates imbalance when driving at speed.

Modern wheel balancing techniques involve the use of microbeads

The advantage of this method is that the granules are poured once, and they perform their intended function throughout the life of the tire. The disadvantage of this balancing method is the high cost of the granules. Therefore, balancing in this way has not gained popularity at present.

Video: DIY wheel balancing

DIY wheel balancing machine

Readers asked to tell us about the device that was used in the USSR to balance wheels during self-balancing.

Everything ingenious is simple! This is how you can describe the principle on which the operation of the device is based.

It consisted of two parts - a support and a “top”, which was installed on the hub in the area of the central hole.

Next, the wheel is mounted horizontally on the support. If there is an imbalance, it will tilt towards the heavier part. The task is to place the weights on the rim so that the wheel takes a horizontal position (parallel to the surface on which the support stands). That's all!

In practice, such a simple device provided a completely acceptable level of balancing - at least the wheels did not subjectively “beat”.

This was the so-called static balancing.

But there were also devices for dynamic balancing!

Our car needs harmony and balance not only in the figurative sense, but also in the direct sense.

Without balancing, not a single rotating part will work correctly, and in the worst case, it will simply smash the entire assembly or assembly into pieces when the vibration frequency enters into resonance with the vibrations of other parts.

Therefore, designers try their best to balance all rotating parts. This applies to driveshafts, crankshafts, flywheels, axle shafts and, of course, wheels.

What is wheel balancing

If all the other shafts and rotating parts work in a closed volume and they absolutely do not care what happens outside the crankcase, block or housing, then the wheels have a hard time.

Even if the tire and disk assembly are perfectly balanced, during operation anything can happen to them, from deformation to the accumulation of dirt. All this affects the balancing of the wheel.

What is this, balancing?

Balancing a car wheel is all about eliminating radial mass differences. That is, if the wheel is lighter on one side and heavier on the other, then it will vibrate when rotating. The higher the rotation speed, the greater the vibration.

Why and how often to do balancing

Needless to say, constant vibration on the steering wheel even at the lowest speeds is simply unacceptable. Wheel imbalance leads to:

deterioration of wheel adhesion to the road;
rapid wear of tires, chassis and car suspension;
a sharp deterioration in controllability;
deterioration of the brake system.

Types of imbalance

And in order to understand the methods of balancing, you need to know the enemy in person, that is, imbalance. Taking into account the simple laws of physics, one can guess that imbalance can be of two types - dynamic and static.

Static imbalance occurs when the wheel's center of gravity moves away from the axis of rotation. The simplest type of imbalance and do-it-yourself wheel balancing is most often aimed at eliminating static imbalance. The wheel vibrates up/down.
Dynamic imbalance is the case when it can only be caught when the wheel rotates, and at fairly high speeds, close to operating conditions. This type of imbalance is characterized by a displacement of the center of gravity of the wheel not only beyond the axis of rotation, but also by an uneven displacement of several centers of gravity relative to each other in a perpendicular plane. The wheel wobbles and vibrates. The diagram will explain this more simply.

It turns out that it is not for nothing that every tire shop has stands for wheel balancing, since any vulcanization is, although minimal, a shift in the center of gravity of the entire wheel, which must be balanced. The cost of balancing wheels on a machine is pennies, but if it is not done, the consequences can be the most depressing.

DIY wheel balancing technology

The simplest and most accessible method of static balancing is available to anyone who is able to hang a car on a jack. Moreover, it is recommended to check wheel balancing after each wheel replacement, regardless of whether it has been balanced before or not. And it couldn’t be easier to do this.

The car is hung on a jack, after which one of the wheels should rotate freely on the hub.
The wheel spins slightly, if the brake pads are in the way, you need to negotiate with them so that they do not prevent the wheel from rotating completely freely.
The same goes for the wheel bearing. Sometimes it becomes necessary to let it go, and after balancing, do not forget to tighten it again.
The wheel rotates freely in one direction, and the place that will be at the bottom is marked with chalk.
The wheel spins in the other direction. The corresponding mark is placed again. And so - several times. If the marks never coincide, the wheel does not need static balancing.
Otherwise, a weight is installed on the side of the wheel diametrically opposite the mark.
The mass of the weight is selected empirically, since the exact weight of the weight cannot be determined by eye. Only a tire balancing stand can do this.

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Congratulations. The static balancing of one of the wheels is completed, now you can begin balancing the rest. Upon completion, sea trials must be carried out. As a rule, an unbalanced wheel begins to vibrate at a speed of about 70-90 km/h.

By the way, the simplest balancing machine can be assembled around an old hub in which the bearing has not yet died. You just have to install the homemade stand perfectly evenly in all planes. Balanced wheels for all and a pleasant driving experience!

Balancing machines detect irregularities on parts during rotation and help eliminate them. Most often, devices with this operating principle are used in tire shops. In addition, these devices have found application in the mechanical engineering industry, where they help balance propellers, turbines and other parts.

Such devices may be equipped with equipment to automatically correct irregularities. In this article we will talk about calibrating a balancing machine with our own hands and describe its structure.

Structure of the apparatus

The basis of a balancing machine is the supports on which the workpieces and sensors are installed to determine their balance. During testing, the level of imbalance is determined, and based on this information, further actions are taken.

Depending on the type of support, balancing machines are divided into soft and hard. The first measure the parameters of the wheel, taking into account the vibrations of the supports. At the same time, the device is additionally configured for each detail, which allows for fairly accurate testing.

In both the first and second versions of the device, the speed sensor plays a special role. No less important for such a machine is the sensor that measures the rotation angles. Depending on the information input option, balancing devices can be manual or automatic.

Principle of operation

Increase the service life of bearings.
Prevent premature wear of tires.
Increase the service life of suspensions.

There are several options by which you can correct imbalance of wheels or other parts:

Balancing rings - used in the process of repairing metalworking machines.
Adjusting screws - special pins are screwed into the unbalanced part, through which it is adjusted.
Drilling is the most popular balancing option. This is done by creating holes that change the weight of the parts being processed.

Read also: Operating instructions for inverter welding machine

Balancing machine repair

After prolonged use, individual parts of the device may malfunction. Conventionally, the origin of the breakdown can be divided into mechanical disorders and problems with electrical components. In the latter case, problems with the sensors are detected. Mechanical problems most often occur after falls or strong impacts.

Problems with the machine can be detected by the following signs:

Normal balancing requires several cycles of operation.
The parameters of the tested disks are determined incorrectly.

Homemade device

It is possible to make a calibrating machine at home, but only the mechanical part. Electrical equipment and measurement sensors should be purchased ready-made. The device drawings should be selected in accordance with the features of the future use of the machine. The best option for creating a balancing machine is presented in these step-by-step instructions:

We create a shaft. It should be turned so that at one end there is a ready-made place for mounting bearings, and at the other there is a thread for installing a washer.
We install bearings. It is best to use those that have already been used, but have not yet used up the main resource. Such parts will create minimal resistance.
We form the apparatus stand. For these purposes, it is best to use a pipe with a diameter of 5.2 centimeters. At the upper end of the support we mount it from above and from the side.
For convenient placement of the part, we recommend creating a support platform.

: DIY wheel balancing machine.

Nuances of operation

To start working with the machine, you need to fix the disk. This can be done using a nut and a cone. After checking the reliability of the fastening, you can begin measuring procedures. The disk is spun up, and then its performance is compared with the reference ones. Deviations should be in the range of 2 and 1.5 g. The first indicator is horizontal, the second is radial.

After this, the wheel must be twisted 90 degrees and a load is hung on the opposite side. If the wheel stops rotating when turned 45 degrees, it means that the do-it-yourself calibration was done successfully.

Errors during the procedure

If the balancing process is carried out in violation of the technology, then the vibration problem, at best, will not be solved, and at worst, it will further worsen. The most common mistakes:

Balancing when there is dirt on the wheel. Even pebbles stuck in the tread can be disrupted by additional imbalance. The overall picture, even with precise equipment, will be disrupted, and it will not be possible to bring the wheel to zero.
Balancing a wheel with a broken tire or wheel geometry. If the disc has even minor dents or distortions, it must first be rolled on a special machine. Straightening the disc with a hammer or other impact instruments is unacceptable.
Incorrect torque of the hub bolt on the balancing machine. Excessive force will lead to the wheel being misaligned and the balancing will be incorrect.
Violation of technology for installing a tire on a disk. Often, even experienced installers perform work in violation of technology. As a result, the wheel is given additional inertia.
Misalignment during installation of the wheel on the vehicle axle. This problem occurs due to incorrect tightening of the bolts. Even if a properly balanced wheel is installed skewed, it will vibrate.

In order to avoid such troubles, you need to carefully choose a car service and supervise the work of the technicians. Qualified specialists guarantee their work and show the balancing results on the machine display. If the master prohibits the presence of the car owner during work or does not provide a guarantee, it is advisable to refuse his services.

Wheel balancing is an important element of monitoring the technical condition of a vehicle. A timely procedure will help not only improve safety and driving comfort, but also extend the life of the vehicle by preventing premature wear of chassis parts.

Author: Andrey
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Characteristics

For each machine, the characteristics will be individual, but their set is all the same. You can consider the most important parameters based on the B-500 AE&T brand equipment.

One of the important parameters is entering information. In this case it is manual.
The next important characteristic is the diameter of the disk, which can be checked. For this unit, the diameter is in the range of 10-24.
The maximum wheel weight is 65 kg.
Since machines are also used for balancing wheels, their diameter also plays an important role. In this case, the maximum value is 960 mm.
Another characteristic that is not decisive, but quite important, is the time required to carry out measurements. In this case it is 8 seconds.
Power consumption is 200 W. In this case, the unit is connected to a regular network of 220 V and 50 Hz.
The rotation speed of the disc or tire is 200 rpm.

Turning the unit on and off

The balancing machine is equipped with a main switch, which is located at the rear of the equipment. To activate the device, you must enter the program and turn on the system by moving the main toggle switch to the ON position. When performing this operation, do not get close to the rotating elements.

Wait a while for the operating system to load. The first program page will then appear on the display. Several options will be presented on the screen. The remaining functions of the technology in question are controlled by five keys located at the bottom of the monitor.

Nuances of operation

After the initial testing, all weights should be removed and repeated measurements should be taken. The disc under test stops at the heaviest point downwards. Be sure to take this information into account when measuring disk parameters. After this, the wheel must be twisted 90 degrees and a load is hung on the opposite side. If the wheel stops rotating when turned 45 degrees, it means that the do-it-yourself calibration was done successfully.