Re: Is it necessary to balance Delorean wheels *on* the car?

["David Teitelbaum <jtrealty@xxxx>" <jtrealty@xxxx>]

To add to Dave Swingle's good explanation balancing the wheels on the
car has other points against it. If the wheel bearings are not perfect
you cannot balance correctly. On many cars you cannot balance the
drive tires properly because of the C/V joints and the fact that when
there is no weight on the tire the half shaft is at an extreme angle
so there is a large "Hook's Joint" effect which prevents balancing
properly. On some cars with limited slip or "lock-up" differentials
(not Deloreans) if you try to balance a tire you will spin the other
tire and if it is on the ground you could move the car! With all of
these factors besides the problem of keeping the tire indexed
correctly if you ever remove it I think it is safest to balance off of
the car. If you balance the front left tire on the car you will also
add miles!!!!!
David Teitelbaum
vin 10757


--- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Dave Swingle <swingle@xxxx>"
<swingle@xxxx> wrote:
> I've had mine balanced off the car with no particular difficulty. 
> 
> The theory behind balancing them ON the car is that you will also 
> take out any imbalances in the brake rotors. In most modern cars, 
> quality brake rotors are balanced themselves so that wheel and rotor 
> balances are independent. I suppose the on-the-car threory holds 
> water if you believe the brake rotors to be unbalanced.
> 
> If you look at other car rotors they are typically balanced by 
> grinding away some material at the outer edge. Since the DeLorean 
> uses single-plate rotors this would be hard to do, so they do not 
> appear to be balanced. I don't recall seeing any balance weights on 
> the inside of the rotors either. 
> 
> Just to complicate things, keep in mind that the mass of the brake 
> rotor relative to the tire is relatively concentrated near the 
> center, so the rotor would have to be significantly out of balance to 
> cause a problem.
>