Thanks to all the all the good eyes spotting and pointing out that it's best to remove all previous weights before balancing/rebalancing. Now a question that's often debated for you guys, is there a limit on weights used per wheel? Leave your opinion in the comments!
You definitely want to remove all old weights before starting If you noticed your weights were opposite sides of each other so you were fighting other weight Absolutely unnecessary I balanced tires full time for 3 years
@@jimmymize8536often tires have a spot marked in ink for the heavier side, to help balance the tire and rim combo as much as possible before adding weights for final balancing.
I also saw that, i have many many years of balancing tires, many different types of machines. Motorized electronic, to electronic hand spun (old snap on it would go down to 1/10 of an once, now i use a really old gravity (i think it also snap on) balancer and it works not to bad. d@Bozemanjustin
Even with the balancer as is from HF, you can spin the tire while it's on the balancer and get a really good idea of where the weight needs to go by watching the bubble as the tire rotates.. And once the weights are placed correctly, the bubble may not stay exactly in the center while the tire rotates, but it will wobble about the center evenly. Spinning the tire and watching the bubble while it spins is more accurate than just letting the balancer rest, as there is that margin of error at rest because of the friction, as you point out in the video. I like your mod, it's super accurate, but for those of us with work vehicles that don't have to be super perfectly accurate, the spin and watch method does work pretty good.
Interesting you mention spinning the tire... seaside garage has a video on a vintage spin balancer machine that used paper instead of a bubble but worked on the exact same premise as your method. Good stuff!
Use 4 weights , 2 inside , 2 outside . when you find the spot , on the wheel mark it , now place 2 weights a few inches on left and 2 a the right of that point , now you fine tune by separating or bringing together the weights .when you are in balance , install 2 weghts inside and 2 outside . you tube has a demonstration video of this .
This what I call "ingeniosity"! It's one of those things that once you see it, you think to yourself that it's very obvious and you should have thought of it yourself BUT it's not that obvious. Great solution!
I used if for my drag car tires and my buddy's stock car tires all the time worked great.. Best to not seat the tire so you can rotate the tire on the rim and sometimes you don't even need to add any weight at all or very little... Ass well do a "Y" balance for your weights eg: you tire is heavy at the bottom of the Y then add two weights at the top of the Y pattern so it balances out it is more accurate then right across from the heavy side...
Yesterday i balanced my tires not knowing about the Y method and they were better but they shook around 70. Found out about the Y method ripped all the weights off balanced them again and i could do 90 without shaking lol i think thatll work
LOOK IN SIDE OF THE TIRES, LOOK FOR OVER LAPED RUBBER IN SIDE THE TIRE, THE LAPS SHOULD BE AROUND 5 TO 6 INCHES LONG, ANYWAYS YOU CAN SEE IT IN THERE, IF YOU HAVE 1 LAP OVER, PUT A LINE IN THE MIDDLE AND PUT THE LINE ON THE VALVE STEM, THAT WILL DIVED THE HEAVY PART TO BOTH SIDES OF THE TIRE, IF 2 LAPS DIVBIDE THE DISTENCE BETWEEN THE TO LAPS, MARK THE DISTENCE BETWEEN THEM, AND PUT THIS MARK ON THE VALVE, SO ON AL LONG AS YOU ARE GETING THE THE HEAVY PART ON BOTH SIDES OF THE TIRE, I DID THIS FOR A LONG TIME NOW, NO BALANCING NO LED, NOTHING, IF YOU HAVE RED DOTS ON THE TIRES, THEN PUT THE RED DOT ON THE VALVE STEM, IT'S THE SAME, BOB THE MASTER MIND
The correct way to balance a tire with a Bubble Balancer, per Goodyear, is to use 4 equal weights . Place wheel on balancer . Get 4 weights of equal value. Place two weights left and two weights right on the high side . Move the weights away from each other till buble is centered . Mark with yellow crayon marker. Take wheel off of balancer and pound on inboard weights . Place wheel back on balancer and adjust the remaining weights ( will be close to craynon marks ) Mark them and remove wheel and pound on weights. I learned this back in the 60s from Goodyear.
That is correct Bought one of these in the early 80s sold it 5 years later and my friend still uses it Tools Work if you know how to use them. I bought another one a few years ago works great no mods.
Thank you for the video, I think rather than the sharp point your steel ball will give a better reading. Rotating the tyre and watching the bubble in the centre would obviously give a more precise reading even if it requires tweaking the weights just a tiny fraction. Overall I think your ball method is a sure winner. Keep it up, it's great.
Nice job, great fix!! I sent one of those back cause it took 2 ounces of weight to get the bubble to move without a wheel on it... like you showed, too much friction. Looks like you fixed it! Thanks for putting it out there.
The hole that the point goes into needed to be drilled out without hitting the bottom of the hole. The balancer was actually resting on the bevel and not the point
Drove me nuts trying pin center the balancer, last result I did was drill the center hole more wider angle. But… your ideas may just work much better.. I have to try that !! 😊. Weld me new post on wheel… might do that !!
very clever! I had given up on my bubble balancer because it didn't seem to balance as much as just stick wherever it was leaning toward. I'm gonna have to try this
Hey thanks! I had just bought one of those wheel balancers and wasn't completely sure it was accurate! Seemed like you could stop the tire in an different spot all the time. Too much friction! I will give this a try!
You can drill the center hole so the point of the hardened steel is what the head is pivoting on. Just drill a little at a time until the head unit keeps rocking instead of stopping in three or four arc motions. Use a 3/8 drill bit and just a little bit at a time, you don't want to drill all the way to the bottom. Once you get the 3/8 hole deep enough the head unit will pivot on the hardened steel point and won't bind from friction. Here is my video on how to do this and best of all it is free. ua-cam.com/video/sGWGdzVnpk4/v-deo.html
Just curious, does the ball bearing and flat surface need to be that large? I can't seem to wrap my mind around why it needs to be such a large bearing and flat surface...🤔 Reason I'm asking is because that piece with the recess in it that the needle balances in can be knocked out from the bubble side if you remove the bubble and spring leaving a place where the proper size ball bearing could be pressed or glued into the hole.
Those must be real "fun" lifting them and trying to put them *gently* on the balancer... Did you mount them yourself or did you take them to a tire shop to do it?
@@brucetec6597 This is correct, oil will just add rolling resistance. this dry method is just about as low resistance as you can get besides putting it in a vacuum chamber.
You can also widen the hole with a drill that the steel pin goes in. By doing this you avoid it resting on the sides and creating friction. I saw someone do that and it wobbles for like 10-15 min if left alone. Also put some grease on there👍
Just got the balancer and I noticed the pin is not centered and casting is quite poor on the machine. This looks like the trick to make sure the balancer is more accurate. So I have some modifications to do yet. Thanks for the video.
Myself I like the Bubble Balance better for my drag tires and my buddy uses my balancer for his stock car tires instead of the spin balance system the spin balance is faster but not as accurate Bubble Balance takes more time and if you don't seat the tire on the time you can rotate it to get it more accurate the seat the tire to the rim then do your balance big difference but a little more time involved that's how we used to do them in the '60's & '70's before the speed / time saving machines came out but there is another trick as well called the "Y " balance at the bottom of the Y is you heave spot then the top of the "Y" is where you put your weights it's better then a direct across Ballance...
How critical is it that the shaft is clamped perfectly vertical? Cause if it's not then the surface the ball bearing sits on isn't level and it might want to roll just from that. One way to test would be to purposely clamp the shaft 1 or 2 degrees off in either direction and see if results match.
the flat surface doesn't need to be completely level as the ball will still only touch at one point, and balances at that point. but if the flat was too out of level, the whole top balancer would slide to one side
I just hung a piece of nylon cord from a 2x4 lever attached to a tree limb used to lift tire off the ground... the bottom of the cord looped to a hook eye which was recessed into a just above the plane of a metal plate that the hub sat on ..... worked great
Do you think it would work just as well to replace the post that comes with the balancer with a length of round rod, with threads cut onto it? You'd just need a foot or so of rod, and a die of the appropriate size...
HELL!! YOU WILL NEVER GET A GOOD TIRE BALANCE WITH THOUSE BUBBLE BALANCERS , BUT IT WILL WORK THE BEST MODIFIED WITH A BALL BARING THO, LIKE THIS GUY DOING HERE, I TRYED EVERY WAS IN THE BOOK TO BALANCE A TIRE, MY WAS IS THE BEST WAS, LOOK>>>> BUT THE GUY HERE WITH THE BALL BARING, GOT IT RIGHT, GIVE CREDIT WHEN CREDIT DUE, MY WAS>>>>> LOOK IN THE TIRE, CHECK FOR OVER LAPED RUBBER, YOU CAN SEE IT, AND FEEL IT WITH YOUR HAND, LOOK HOW LONG THE OVER LAP IS, DIVER THE OVER LAP IN HALF MARK WITH A CHOCK , AND PUT THE MARK ON THE VALVER STEM,IF TO LAPS OVER RUBBER, DIVIDE THE DISTENCE BETWEEL THE 2 LAPS WITH A CHOCK, PUT THAT MARK ON THE VALVE STEM, SO ON SO ON, AS LONG AS YOU HAVE THE HEAVY PART OF THE TIRE HALF ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE VALVE STEM, AND HALF ON THE LEFT SIDE YOUR GOOD TO GO,, I DO THIS WAS ALL THE TIME AND NO LED NOTHING, NO SHAKE NOTHING, IF YOU HAVE A RED DOT PUT THE RED DOT ON THE VALVE STEM IT'S THE SAME THING, GOOD LUCK ANYWAYS I LIKE PLAING WITH THE BUBBLE BALANCER THO, IF I WAS MAKING THE BALANCER I WOULD HAVE MADE IT WITH A ROUND NUCLE FOR THE PIVER, AND A NICE TOUND SLOT FOR IT TO ROATE IN, LOL, IT'S FUN TO WACH SOME PEOPLE ON YOU TUBE TRING TO BALANCE A TIR WITH THE OLD BUBBLE BALANCER THIS GUY HERE ON THIS PAGE HE HAVE GOT THE BALANCER AS GOOD A YOUR GOING TO GET, ROB THE MASTER MIND
Why does the wheel already have 3 weights on the outside and at least one on the inside? How do you know the ball is concentric with the wheel pilot? Did you adjust the tape? Is the resting surface level, not just flat?
This idea is the only thing to do with the bubble balancer works perfect way better than the way it’s originally built.when dropping a weight on the tire it will actually move a little when you notice a difference with the smallest weight,with the factory version there is no movement.thanks for the great idea.
Aside of this issue, it is still a static balancer. I wonder what happens, when you start rotating the wheel carefully - maybe by rotating the centre? Is it maybe possible to see a bad balanced wheel tumbling? 🤔
tried this........balancer levels out with no rim and tire on it......when I put a tire on it it flops totally to one side. does the steel rod have to be level, or close to level?
He needed 2 weights to balance the tire so, he just put the other one on the back. Most like to have one on the back and the front. They find out the total weight needed and divide by 2. Some even go as far as clipping the weights for a more precise balance. Best way to avoid clipping is to use the y pattern method using adhesive weights that go dead center on the inside of the wheel.
It's funny you said not to use them on race tires what do you think was being used in the '50s '60s '70s and 80s at racetracks just saying brother it's what we use
Cheers, fair enough, but also time and tech marches on. The first guy to hit 200 mph in the nhra was what, 64? Things change. If you can use newer more accurate tech, go for it is all I'm saying. Most won't have that at home.
Great question. I would say no, with a deep offset, the bubble balancer is less accurate. The reason tightrope walkers use those long poles is that the dip down and lower the center of gravity, same for a deep offset wheel. The same mass wheel of the same diameter would be less accurately balanced on a bubble balancer than one with less offset until the point the wheel can't be balanced, and topples.
This modification is nice and simple but it would be reliant on the flat surface being level. I think the point and seat style is a better design if a tungsten alloy was used.
the flat surface doesn't need to be completely level as the ball will still only touch at one point, and balance at that point. but if the flat was too out of level, the whole top balancer would slide to one side
the flat surface doesn't need to be completely level as the ball will still only touch at one point, and balances at that point. but if the flat was too out of level, the whole top balancer would slide to one side
On Amazon you can buy a 2" 1/4 inch steel disc. After grinding the needle on the original Harbor Freight type balancer you can use JB Weld to attach the 2" disc flush to the top of the post.
Good eye! Yeah, that's my main business. Bostig makes zetec engine swap kits for them. The one behind me is my sunroof syncro, it's the new test mule to replace the old one. It's the testbed for bunch of things. An industrial coating vs paint or bedliner, and a hybrid conversion I've been working on. It's also got some 3D printed side mirror brackets to try some UTV mirrors. You can see the kit at bostig.com
Ebay ~10$ ball bearing 1.5" or 38.1mm. longer delivery time but half the price.... Edit: Talk about long delivery time. Almost 3 full months waiting! Jeez| This Covid crisis is making delivery times totally insane! But finally received it today! :-)
You failed to remove the old wheel weights on the tire, you can see two weights on it when you set the tire on the balancer. That is not a properly balanced tire.
I DID THAT, drilled it out to make it pivet from the tip, now the pivet pin is driling a deep hole, have to be a nice big nuckel and a nice round smoth hole for the nuckel, this is why thay made the bubble balancer like it's made to pivet from the lower side of the pivet pin so that the tip of the pivet pin cant dril a hole it the pivet sloot, the older bubble balancers that thay used in the grage in the 70s was like a big ball baring, well like the guy here did, this is the only was to get a cheap bubble balancer to work, and when you add led to your tire and rim, strait accross from the heavy side this all it takes,, there is a way to balance your tires with no led, no balancer , look in side your tires, look for over lap rubber on the inside of the tire, you will see it some time it's around 4 or 5 incher long some are different tho, if you have 1 lap over make a mark in the middle of it and put the mark on the valve stem, 2 lap over now you have to dived the distence between them, like how far apart thay are, put a mark in the middle of the distence thay are a part divied that in half with a chock mark put the chock mark on the alver stem, should be good to go now, i have no led steel rime winter tire no led no shake nothing, just like i drived out of the tire shop and got the big deal lol rob the master minded guy , if you have red dots on your tires put the red dot right on the valver stem, no led no shake
The fundamental issue with these modern static tire balancers is the manufacturing quality. Look at Jegs, Northern tool, Harbor freight... they are ALL selling literally the SAME units that clearly came out of the same factory in china. And having owned 3 (from 3 sources) myself, I can attest that they all have the same manufacturing flaw. When these are manufactured, the balance head starts as a single piece of cast aluminum. After it is cast, it is placed on a lathe and the outside surface is machined down. The problem starts here. The part is either not being centered on the lathe correctly, OR the casting is so badly out-of-round that the machining simply does not correct things enough. TAKE A CLOSE LOOK at the adjustable bubble round on the top of EVERY ONE of these balancers... The bubble round is not even centered in the machined hole! Notice the thickness of the outer ring is thicker on one side than it is the other? Now flip the balance head over... notice the balance pad is centered with inner cast hole? If the outer machining is not on-center with the inner cast cavity, then you can easily see that the entire assembly is effectively not sitting on the pivot point in a true on-center fashion. The means: your tire is ultimately NOT SITTING ON-CENTER WITH THE PIVOT. Still don't believe me? Try this: balance your tire as shown in the video. NOW... lift the tire up and rotate the tire 180 degrees from the original position on the balance head. You will likely get a totally different reading. The only way to truly correct these balancers would be to [correctly] mount the balance head by the outside/machined surface and further machine the inside to bring the entire assembly into true round top-to-bottom. Ideally, you would then flip it around and also machine out the hole where the bubble round mounts as well. Finally, a large bearing would be inserted at a properly centered point and the entire head would be balanced: the heavy side would have a tiny amount of material drilled out from the underside to counter-balance any final in-balance that remained. Only then, would this be a properly machined, calibrated and accurate tool to check the static balance of a tire. Simply adding a bearing does little to correct this part of the issue because, again... the inner cast cavity is NOT ON-CENTER with the outer machined surface that the tire sits against. After buying 3 of these over 4 years from 3 different sources, I quickly realized they ALL have this same defect and likely all come from the same factory. I finally gave up and found a old used Micro-Precision balancer from the early 80's on fleabay (the kind that have an oil-dampened cavity and are factory-calibrated to the base/stand).
@@socknetea On a full size truck/suv tire ALL of these will yield an imbalance of 1-2 oz. This is enough to make the unit essentially ineffective. "But so many people have great results with these". This is true. Countless people perceive "great results" every day from products that yield poor results. This is called "the masses don't know any better". This argument is functionally the same to hearing someone say "millions smoke crack every day and are just fine". That is also a true statement, but I am still not going to run out and smoke crack. The lobotomy worked GREAT for its intended purpose for many years, too. Thousands attested to it, doctors approved it. The bore hole on these is off-center. Period. The entire point of a balance is to... well.. BALANCE something. If it is NOT on-center, it can NOT be balanced. Period. These cheaper units may get the tire to within an ounce or two. And for many people, this may very well be good enough. But anyone using these for larger tires and especially anyone who is a bit more accustomed to vehicles that drive smother (and drive a LOT, especially highway) WILL notice a difference. I mentioned and explained all this because there is a functional reason the china sweat shop has not fixed this issue yet... Because everyone gets in line to buy these in ignorance and says "thank you sir, can I have another?". If enough people just started returning these - rejecting them. Bringing them back to HF, Northern Tool, etc... They would get the message and the factory would adjust the tooling (or re-tool) accordingly. Furthermore, the real fix for these is quit simple.. the factory simply needs to turn the balance head around after the outer surface is turned on the lathe and clean up the inside as well on the lathe. This would not only "center" the bore, but would also fix the "imbalance" that results from more material on one side of the head -vs- the other.
@@deanrantala i agree, the best fix is done at manufacturing level, it's just quality control, nothing wrong with the design or concept, and better lathing doesn't cost that much more either.
I did not mess with it too much. But I mostly disagree on the concept you suggesting. Lets say tool has imbalance 1oz on one side. in other words you can add 1oz and have it balanced. Tool itself. But lets say you do not do it and keep it unbalanced. It is still not that bad. Because torque it creates is a very minimal 1 oz over 2 or 3" (radius of the tool). The alloy wheel is 16" in diameter. Radius is 8". 1 oz over 8 inches created a torque over 3 times larger. In other words imbalance of the tool is just a fraction (rather small) of the total imbalance of the tire. But this is just a theory. I may be wrong.
In an ideal and perfect world it would be better for sure! But a really cheap digital dynamic balance machine is close to 900$/1000$. Occupy a lot of space... This basic piece of equipment can be yours for little more than 79.99$, or around that! AND it work OK! Properly used get the job done! Cheers
Bubble Balance I've used on my drag cars for years even my buddy uses my machine for his stock car tires it takes more time and with the tire on rim not seated you can rotate the tire to get a better balance that way as well and half the time the kids in the tire shops don't know how to use the speed machines compared to the slow process of the Bubble Balance used then since the late '60's and still works great in this day and age... But don't expect to get a balance of 4 tires done in 10 minutes ... I put the tire on the rim not seated and rotate the tire on the rim till it's pretty close to being balanced then I seat the tire then do a "Y" balance at the bottom big the "Y" is the heavy point then the top of the "Y" is where I put my weights...
Ha! That's a great point, especially now! Although it doesn't have to be a solid rod like I've got there. A smaller piece of steel on a 4*4 could work for instance
I think its 4.5 times more accurate. Great Idea. But gonna run me and extra 70 bucks for 2 in steel bar and the ball. But it will do the job I want it to do. My wheels and tires weight almost 100 lbs each.
Every tire is mounted to the vehicle by use of a wheel. The wheel has a rim. The wheel is not a rim. When we speak of technical processes we need to use the correct nomenclature.
Don't do it. The ball bearing raises the center of gravity of the balancer to make it useless for most wheels (depending on the wheel offset). Just grind the aluminum lip flush on the upright rod and narrow the pointer with a grinder or file so the balancer rests on the tip of the point rather than the shoulder of the pointer (as it comes from the factory).
A large bolt that was flattened using sand paper on a piece of glass would work for the "plate." then attach to a upright ua-cam.com/video/GHuqMcyqWj4/v-deo.html
works about as well as balancing a tire on your head. went out bought 99 dollar new balancer and 1.5 inch steel ball, leveled thick steel rod that ball sits on and tire still flops all the way to one side. NO idea how that balancer in video doesnt try to dump off rim when rim and tire is set on it. Only stays level with no rim and tire on it.
Thanks to all the all the good eyes spotting and pointing out that it's best to remove all previous weights before balancing/rebalancing. Now a question that's often debated for you guys, is there a limit on weights used per wheel? Leave your opinion in the comments!
You definitely want to remove all old weights before starting
If you noticed your weights were opposite sides of each other so you were fighting other weight
Absolutely unnecessary
I balanced tires full time for 3 years
less then 2.5g,, if you can spin the tire on the wheel to get a better balance, that would be best
@@jimmymize8536often tires have a spot marked in ink for the heavier side, to help balance the tire and rim combo as much as possible before adding weights for final balancing.
I also saw that, i have many many years of balancing tires, many different types of machines. Motorized electronic, to electronic hand spun (old snap on it would go down to 1/10 of an once, now i use a really old gravity (i think it also snap on) balancer and it works not to bad. d@Bozemanjustin
Even with the balancer as is from HF, you can spin the tire while it's on the balancer and get a really good idea of where the weight needs to go by watching the bubble as the tire rotates.. And once the weights are placed correctly, the bubble may not stay exactly in the center while the tire rotates, but it will wobble about the center evenly. Spinning the tire and watching the bubble while it spins is more accurate than just letting the balancer rest, as there is that margin of error at rest because of the friction, as you point out in the video. I like your mod, it's super accurate, but for those of us with work vehicles that don't have to be super perfectly accurate, the spin and watch method does work pretty good.
Interesting you mention spinning the tire... seaside garage has a video on a vintage spin balancer machine that used paper instead of a bubble but worked on the exact same premise as your method. Good stuff!
First thing I did upon buying one of these balancers was put a dab of grease on the pivot. Not as good as that ball but it does work a lot better.
Use 4 weights , 2 inside , 2 outside . when you find the spot , on the wheel mark it , now place 2 weights a few inches on left and 2 a the right of that point , now you fine tune by separating or bringing together the weights .when you are in balance , install 2 weghts inside and 2 outside . you tube has a demonstration video of this .
This what I call "ingeniosity"!
It's one of those things that once you see it, you think to yourself that it's very obvious and you should have thought of it yourself BUT it's not that obvious.
Great solution!
No one thinks your word is clever
I used if for my drag car tires and my buddy's stock car tires all the time worked great..
Best to not seat the tire so you can rotate the tire on the rim and sometimes you don't even need to add any weight at all or very little...
Ass well do a "Y" balance for your weights eg: you tire is heavy at the bottom of the Y then add two weights at the top of the Y pattern so it balances out it is more accurate then right across from the heavy side...
Yesterday i balanced my tires not knowing about the Y method and they were better but they shook around 70. Found out about the Y method ripped all the weights off balanced them again and i could do 90 without shaking lol i think thatll work
LOOK IN SIDE OF THE TIRES, LOOK FOR OVER LAPED RUBBER IN SIDE THE TIRE, THE LAPS SHOULD BE AROUND 5 TO 6 INCHES LONG, ANYWAYS YOU CAN SEE IT IN THERE, IF YOU HAVE 1 LAP OVER, PUT A LINE IN THE MIDDLE AND PUT THE LINE ON THE VALVE STEM, THAT WILL DIVED THE HEAVY PART TO BOTH SIDES OF THE TIRE, IF 2 LAPS DIVBIDE THE DISTENCE BETWEEN THE TO LAPS, MARK THE DISTENCE BETWEEN THEM, AND PUT THIS MARK ON THE VALVE, SO ON AL LONG AS YOU ARE GETING THE THE HEAVY PART ON BOTH SIDES OF THE TIRE, I DID THIS FOR A LONG TIME NOW, NO BALANCING NO LED, NOTHING, IF YOU HAVE RED DOTS ON THE TIRES, THEN PUT THE RED DOT ON THE VALVE STEM, IT'S THE SAME, BOB THE MASTER MIND
I did this to the balancer I just bought, absolutely the best mod.
you can also use a ~1/4" drill bit to widen/flatten out the hole for the pin.
Honestly, I was waiting for you to pull out a lathe or something... but that was nice, and simple!
Have a good night, Gunny!
it's so awesome it's been three weeks and my tire is almost balanced. :)
😂
The correct way to balance a tire with a Bubble Balancer, per Goodyear, is to use 4 equal weights . Place wheel on balancer . Get 4 weights of equal value. Place two weights left and two weights right on the high side . Move the weights away from each other till buble is centered . Mark with yellow crayon marker. Take wheel off of balancer and pound on inboard weights . Place wheel back on balancer and adjust the remaining weights ( will be close to craynon marks ) Mark them and remove wheel and pound on weights. I learned this back in the 60s from Goodyear.
That is correct Bought one of these in the early 80s sold it 5 years later and my friend still uses it Tools Work if you know how to use them. I bought another one a few years ago works great no mods.
I'm 69, the y method is how I learned working at Michelin dealer iwhen I was 20.
Thank you for the video, I think rather than the sharp point your steel ball will give a better reading. Rotating the tyre and watching the bubble in the centre would obviously give a more precise reading even if it requires tweaking the weights just a tiny fraction. Overall I think your ball method is a sure winner. Keep it up, it's great.
Nice job, great fix!!
I sent one of those back cause it took 2 ounces of weight to get the bubble to move without a wheel on it... like you showed, too much friction.
Looks like you fixed it!
Thanks for putting it out there.
The hole that the point goes into needed to be drilled out without hitting the bottom of the hole.
The balancer was actually resting on the bevel and not the point
Drove me nuts trying pin center the balancer, last result I did was drill the center hole more wider angle. But… your ideas may just work much better.. I have to try that !! 😊. Weld me new post on wheel… might do that !!
excellent thanks ....i never would have thought of using a ball bearing
very clever! I had given up on my bubble balancer because it didn't seem to balance as much as just stick wherever it was leaning toward. I'm gonna have to try this
This is awesome! And so much easier than the other modifications I have seen. Thanks!!
Hey thanks! I had just bought one of those wheel balancers and wasn't completely sure it was accurate! Seemed like you could stop the tire in an different spot all the time. Too much friction! I will give this a try!
You can drill the center hole so the point of the hardened steel is what the head is pivoting on. Just drill a little at a time until the head unit keeps rocking instead of stopping in three or four arc motions. Use a 3/8 drill bit and just a little bit at a time, you don't want to drill all the way to the bottom. Once you get the 3/8 hole deep enough the head unit will pivot on the hardened steel point and won't bind from friction. Here is my video on how to do this and best of all it is free. ua-cam.com/video/sGWGdzVnpk4/v-deo.html
I am going to do this to mine. I noticed right off mine was not very accurate this upgrade should solve the problem. Thank you for posting!
Just curious, does the ball bearing and flat surface need to be that large? I can't seem to wrap my mind around why it needs to be such a large bearing and flat surface...🤔 Reason I'm asking is because that piece with the recess in it that the needle balances in can be knocked out from the bubble side if you remove the bubble and spring leaving a place where the proper size ball bearing could be pressed or glued into the hole.
Haha! Brilliant. I like how you're using that ubiquitous Chinesium floor vise that everyone has.
I love the way you explained this one.
Thanks bro. No one could balance my 24rims with 38 tires. Now I can do them 🙏 each wheel is 150 pounds lol
Damn those are bigguns!
Those must be real "fun" lifting them and trying to put them *gently* on the balancer... Did you mount them yourself or did you take them to a tire shop to do it?
You will have to balance the wheels too.
Hell yeah ! Im totally doing this ! With a dab of oil between the bearing just for good measure!
I wouldn't add the oil since it will actually create more friction. It's better dry.
@@brucetec6597 This is correct, oil will just add rolling resistance. this dry method is just about as low resistance as you can get besides putting it in a vacuum chamber.
@@hhn2002 vacuum chamber would actually yield incorrect data to support the natural gravity effects tires were made for.
You can also widen the hole with a drill that the steel pin goes in. By doing this you avoid it resting on the sides and creating friction. I saw someone do that and it wobbles for like 10-15 min if left alone. Also put some grease on there👍
Thank you very much! Very good tip. I am totally doing it. Ordered the ball, stainless steel rod. Awesome! Good job!
Excellent idea, thank you
Just got the balancer and I noticed the pin is not centered and casting is quite poor on the machine. This looks like the trick to make sure the balancer is more accurate. So I have some modifications to do yet. Thanks for the video.
ok, wow i think you solved my problem with my balancer! thanks.
I ordered the ball bearing but I am wondering how the post will stay centered and not move off to rhe side and bind
Nice, I was hoping you would compare it to a spin balancer.
Myself I like the Bubble Balance better for my drag tires and my buddy uses my balancer for his stock car tires instead of the spin balance system the spin balance is faster but not as accurate Bubble Balance takes more time and if you don't seat the tire on the time you can rotate it to get it more accurate the seat the tire to the rim then do your balance big difference but a little more time involved that's how we used to do them in the '60's & '70's before the speed / time saving machines came out but there is another trick as well called the "Y " balance at the bottom of the Y is you heave spot then the top of the "Y" is where you put your weights it's better then a direct across Ballance...
Smart! This is what I have been doing all the time!
Hey thanks for the video!! what is that thing call clamping to the steel rod?
I like this, better than trying to drill, and I have a ball that will work about perfect. NICE.
How critical is it that the shaft is clamped perfectly vertical? Cause if it's not then the surface the ball bearing sits on isn't level and it might want to roll just from that. One way to test would be to purposely clamp the shaft 1 or 2 degrees off in either direction and see if results match.
the flat surface doesn't need to be completely level as the ball will still only touch at one point, and balances at that point. but if the flat was too out of level, the whole top balancer would slide to one side
I just hung a piece of nylon cord from a 2x4 lever attached to a tree limb used to lift tire off the ground... the bottom of the cord looped to a hook eye which was recessed into a just above the plane of a metal plate that the hub sat on ..... worked great
Do you think it would work just as well to replace the post that comes with the balancer with a length of round rod, with threads cut onto it? You'd just need a foot or so of rod, and a die of the appropriate size...
Hello Bostig, What diameter was that steel rod that you used?
I have also heard that you should divide the weights in a y pattern.
HELL!! YOU WILL NEVER GET A GOOD TIRE BALANCE WITH THOUSE BUBBLE BALANCERS , BUT IT WILL WORK THE BEST MODIFIED WITH A BALL BARING THO, LIKE THIS GUY DOING HERE, I TRYED EVERY WAS IN THE BOOK TO BALANCE A TIRE, MY WAS IS THE BEST WAS, LOOK>>>> BUT THE GUY HERE WITH THE BALL BARING, GOT IT RIGHT, GIVE CREDIT WHEN CREDIT DUE, MY WAS>>>>> LOOK IN THE TIRE, CHECK FOR OVER LAPED RUBBER, YOU CAN SEE IT, AND FEEL IT WITH YOUR HAND, LOOK HOW LONG THE OVER LAP IS, DIVER THE OVER LAP IN HALF MARK WITH A CHOCK , AND PUT THE MARK ON THE VALVER STEM,IF TO LAPS OVER RUBBER, DIVIDE THE DISTENCE BETWEEL THE 2 LAPS WITH A CHOCK, PUT THAT MARK ON THE VALVE STEM, SO ON SO ON, AS LONG AS YOU HAVE THE HEAVY PART OF THE TIRE HALF ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE VALVE STEM, AND HALF ON THE LEFT SIDE YOUR GOOD TO GO,, I DO THIS WAS ALL THE TIME AND NO LED NOTHING, NO SHAKE NOTHING, IF YOU HAVE A RED DOT PUT THE RED DOT ON THE VALVE STEM IT'S THE SAME THING, GOOD LUCK ANYWAYS I LIKE PLAING WITH THE BUBBLE BALANCER THO, IF I WAS MAKING THE BALANCER I WOULD HAVE MADE IT WITH A ROUND NUCLE FOR THE PIVER, AND A NICE TOUND SLOT FOR IT TO ROATE IN, LOL, IT'S FUN TO WACH SOME PEOPLE ON YOU TUBE TRING TO BALANCE A TIR WITH THE OLD BUBBLE BALANCER THIS GUY HERE ON THIS PAGE HE HAVE GOT THE BALANCER AS GOOD A YOUR GOING TO GET, ROB THE MASTER MIND
This is great, thank you! Will be trying this out!
Thanks for this update , I try it
What is the diameter of that steel rod? Thanks for a great video and bubble balacer upgrade.
Thanks for checking it out, the rod I had was around 2.25" if I remember correctly.
Why does the wheel already have 3 weights on the outside and at least one on the inside?
How do you know the ball is concentric with the wheel pilot? Did you adjust the tape?
Is the resting surface level, not just flat?
This idea is the only thing to do with the bubble balancer works perfect way better than the way it’s originally built.when dropping a weight on the tire it will actually move a little when you notice a difference with the smallest weight,with the factory version there is no movement.thanks for the great idea.
Aside of this issue, it is still a static balancer. I wonder what happens, when you start rotating the wheel carefully - maybe by rotating the centre? Is it maybe possible to see a bad balanced wheel tumbling? 🤔
It would be impossible to spin without adding a wobble to it
combine this with the laser pointing on the ceiling instead of bubble and u get perfection
Yup, we can get 0.01 degree accuracy.
Can you explain more? Or have a link?
Nice job. Thanks
Outstanding!!!!
Good work
did you take the old weights off
Great idea bro 👍
Nice work!
I see some of the top parts are not, or at least don’t look to be machined on center. How do we know the top part is balanced?
What do you think they used to balance racing tyres on??
How thick is the pipe and how long it should be, you missed that part.
tried this........balancer levels out with no rim and tire on it......when I put a tire on it it flops totally to one side. does the steel rod have to be level, or close to level?
Interesting. Thanks
Q ? please ? if we put 1 weight on top the same goes on the bottom ?
He needed 2 weights to balance the tire so, he just put the other one on the back. Most like to have one on the back and the front. They find out the total weight needed and divide by 2. Some even go as far as clipping the weights for a more precise balance. Best way to avoid clipping is to use the y pattern method using adhesive weights that go dead center on the inside of the wheel.
@@stashoneill Thanks 🥰
Do you have a video how to do y shape .
Thank you sir .😍 😜 LORD❤❤ be with you.
@@johnbaptist7476 I most certainly do! Here’s one about the “Y” method; ua-cam.com/video/w_mH9qCceMA/v-deo.html
@@johnbaptist7476 Here’s another about the placement of the weights; ua-cam.com/video/GCLVcsRbqYU/v-deo.html
Great idea though, but you can just widen the hole where pin sits on. Zero cost.
zero cost, true it would also still work really well but if you are going for ultimate manual balance this is the way to go.
As stated in the video. The original two metals are soft and deform quickly
It's funny you said not to use them on race tires what do you think was being used in the '50s '60s '70s and 80s at racetracks just saying brother it's what we use
Cheers, fair enough, but also time and tech marches on. The first guy to hit 200 mph in the nhra was what, 64? Things change. If you can use newer more accurate tech, go for it is all I'm saying. Most won't have that at home.
what is your opinion on using this for very wide wheels with deep offset? Is it still accurate enough?
Great question. I would say no, with a deep offset, the bubble balancer is less accurate. The reason tightrope walkers use those long poles is that the dip down and lower the center of gravity, same for a deep offset wheel. The same mass wheel of the same diameter would be less accurately balanced on a bubble balancer than one with less offset until the point the wheel can't be balanced, and topples.
Ha ha made one to balance my aircraft propeller 🎯
When are the Bostig shirts going up for sale?!
Ta-da! Great idea.. www.bostig.com/bostig-logo-redkap-short-sleeve-performance-plus-shop-shirt-with-oilblok-technology/
Thank you
Any updates on your balancer are you still happy with your mod.
This modification is nice and simple but it would be reliant on the flat surface being level. I think the point and seat style is a better design if a tungsten alloy was used.
the flat surface doesn't need to be completely level as the ball will still only touch at one point, and balance at that point. but if the flat was too out of level, the whole top balancer would slide to one side
when i get mine fixed, am going to try and balance my rubber boots
What about balance beads
good job!
Just drill the hole a little bit to make it wider than the pen base.. same result with free and no time modification
Does the flat disk need to be leveled???
I was going to Tig weld a flat disk to my rod but didn't want to because I'm not sure I can make the disk I weld completely level
the flat surface doesn't need to be completely level as the ball will still only touch at one point, and balances at that point. but if the flat was too out of level, the whole top balancer would slide to one side
Flat is more important than level to a point, Gravity is doing the work here
where do I get that stand metal?
On Amazon you can buy a 2" 1/4 inch steel disc. After grinding the needle on the original Harbor Freight type balancer you can use JB Weld to attach the 2" disc flush to the top of the post.
That a Vanagon behind you?
Good eye! Yeah, that's my main business. Bostig makes zetec engine swap kits for them. The one behind me is my sunroof syncro, it's the new test mule to replace the old one. It's the testbed for bunch of things. An industrial coating vs paint or bedliner, and a hybrid conversion I've been working on. It's also got some 3D printed side mirror brackets to try some UTV mirrors. You can see the kit at bostig.com
@@bostig Awesome. Sounds a lot of fun.
😂 So who is the diver the dog or you 😊
I was a diver, how'd you figure that? Did I miss something in my own vid?
very clever
Ebay ~10$ ball bearing 1.5" or 38.1mm. longer delivery time but half the price....
Edit: Talk about long delivery time. Almost 3 full months waiting! Jeez| This Covid crisis is making delivery times totally insane! But finally received it today! :-)
awesome
You failed to remove the old wheel weights on the tire, you can see two weights on it when you set the tire on the balancer. That is not a properly balanced tire.
Priceless
great video sir. ,, good job gunny.
Just drill the hole under the bubble a little larger that way it will only sit on the sharp edge and not the rod its self
The real problem is that the pointer sides are hitting the hole where the pin rides. So you need to drill the hole wider.
I DID THAT, drilled it out to make it pivet from the tip, now the pivet pin is driling a deep hole, have to be a nice big nuckel and a nice round smoth hole for the nuckel, this is why thay made the bubble balancer like it's made to pivet from the lower side of the pivet pin so that the tip of the pivet pin cant dril a hole it the pivet sloot, the older bubble balancers that thay used in the grage in the 70s was like a big ball baring, well like the guy here did, this is the only was to get a cheap bubble balancer to work, and when you add led to your tire and rim, strait accross from the heavy side this all it takes,, there is a way to balance your tires with no led, no balancer , look in side your tires, look for over lap rubber on the inside of the tire, you will see it some time it's around 4 or 5 incher long some are different tho, if you have 1 lap over make a mark in the middle of it and put the mark on the valve stem, 2 lap over now you have to dived the distence between them, like how far apart thay are, put a mark in the middle of the distence thay are a part divied that in half with a chock mark put the chock mark on the alver stem, should be good to go now, i have no led steel rime winter tire no led no shake nothing, just like i drived out of the tire shop and got the big deal lol rob the master minded guy , if you have red dots on your tires put the red dot right on the valver stem, no led no shake
You could also just put a dab of grease on the pivot point for the harbor freight tool.
Should have taken all the other weights off.. I worked in a garage, so i know that for a fact. Weights should only be in one area.
The fundamental issue with these modern static tire balancers is the manufacturing quality. Look at Jegs, Northern tool, Harbor freight... they are ALL selling literally the SAME units that clearly came out of the same factory in china. And having owned 3 (from 3 sources) myself, I can attest that they all have the same manufacturing flaw. When these are manufactured, the balance head starts as a single piece of cast aluminum. After it is cast, it is placed on a lathe and the outside surface is machined down. The problem starts here. The part is either not being centered on the lathe correctly, OR the casting is so badly out-of-round that the machining simply does not correct things enough. TAKE A CLOSE LOOK at the adjustable bubble round on the top of EVERY ONE of these balancers... The bubble round is not even centered in the machined hole! Notice the thickness of the outer ring is thicker on one side than it is the other? Now flip the balance head over... notice the balance pad is centered with inner cast hole? If the outer machining is not on-center with the inner cast cavity, then you can easily see that the entire assembly is effectively not sitting on the pivot point in a true on-center fashion. The means: your tire is ultimately NOT SITTING ON-CENTER WITH THE PIVOT.
Still don't believe me? Try this: balance your tire as shown in the video. NOW... lift the tire up and rotate the tire 180 degrees from the original position on the balance head. You will likely get a totally different reading.
The only way to truly correct these balancers would be to [correctly] mount the balance head by the outside/machined surface and further machine the inside to bring the entire assembly into true round top-to-bottom. Ideally, you would then flip it around and also machine out the hole where the bubble round mounts as well. Finally, a large bearing would be inserted at a properly centered point and the entire head would be balanced: the heavy side would have a tiny amount of material drilled out from the underside to counter-balance any final in-balance that remained. Only then, would this be a properly machined, calibrated and accurate tool to check the static balance of a tire.
Simply adding a bearing does little to correct this part of the issue because, again... the inner cast cavity is NOT ON-CENTER with the outer machined surface that the tire sits against. After buying 3 of these over 4 years from 3 different sources, I quickly realized they ALL have this same defect and likely all come from the same factory.
I finally gave up and found a old used Micro-Precision balancer from the early 80's on fleabay (the kind that have an oil-dampened cavity and are factory-calibrated to the base/stand).
I’ve also had the same experience. Can’t get the same reading twice.
not that quick if you had to buy 3 of them... its close enough for what's intended and plenty poeple attest to that, and this mod makes it even better
@@socknetea On a full size truck/suv tire ALL of these will yield an imbalance of 1-2 oz. This is enough to make the unit essentially ineffective.
"But so many people have great results with these". This is true. Countless people perceive "great results" every day from products that yield poor results. This is called "the masses don't know any better".
This argument is functionally the same to hearing someone say "millions smoke crack every day and are just fine". That is also a true statement, but I am still not going to run out and smoke crack.
The lobotomy worked GREAT for its intended purpose for many years, too. Thousands attested to it, doctors approved it.
The bore hole on these is off-center. Period. The entire point of a balance is to... well.. BALANCE something. If it is NOT on-center, it can NOT be balanced. Period.
These cheaper units may get the tire to within an ounce or two. And for many people, this may very well be good enough. But anyone using these for larger tires and especially anyone who is a bit more accustomed to vehicles that drive smother (and drive a LOT, especially highway) WILL notice a difference.
I mentioned and explained all this because there is a functional reason the china sweat shop has not fixed this issue yet... Because everyone gets in line to buy these in ignorance and says "thank you sir, can I have another?". If enough people just started returning these - rejecting them. Bringing them back to HF, Northern Tool, etc... They would get the message and the factory would adjust the tooling (or re-tool) accordingly.
Furthermore, the real fix for these is quit simple.. the factory simply needs to turn the balance head around after the outer surface is turned on the lathe and clean up the inside as well on the lathe. This would not only "center" the bore, but would also fix the "imbalance" that results from more material on one side of the head -vs- the other.
@@deanrantala i agree, the best fix is done at manufacturing level, it's just quality control, nothing wrong with the design or concept, and better lathing doesn't cost that much more either.
I did not mess with it too much. But I mostly disagree on the concept you suggesting. Lets say tool has imbalance 1oz on one side. in other words you can add 1oz and have it balanced. Tool itself. But lets say you do not do it and keep it unbalanced. It is still not that bad. Because torque it creates is a very minimal 1 oz over 2 or 3" (radius of the tool). The alloy wheel is 16" in diameter. Radius is 8". 1 oz over 8 inches created a torque over 3 times larger. In other words imbalance of the tool is just a fraction (rather small) of the total imbalance of the tire.
But this is just a theory. I may be wrong.
wow nice
Use the Y method on the weights for more accuracy.
Genius
This tool can only achieve static balance. Don't a car wheel need to be dynamically balanced?
In an ideal and perfect world it would be better for sure! But a really cheap digital dynamic balance machine is close to 900$/1000$. Occupy a lot of space...
This basic piece of equipment can be yours for little more than 79.99$, or around that! AND it work OK! Properly used get the job done!
Cheers
Bubble Balance I've used on my drag cars for years even my buddy uses my machine for his stock car tires it takes more time and with the tire on rim not seated you can rotate the tire to get a better balance that way as well and half the time the kids in the tire shops don't know how to use the speed machines compared to the slow process of the Bubble Balance used then since the late '60's and still works great in this day and age... But don't expect to get a balance of 4 tires done in 10 minutes ...
I put the tire on the rim not seated and rotate the tire on the rim till it's pretty close to being balanced then I seat the tire then do a "Y" balance at the bottom big the "Y" is the heavy point then the top of the "Y" is where I put my weights...
Cool
Just grease the pivot point, then the weight of the tire will dominate the friction. You don't need to do anything else.
The problem is the pivot point needs to be centered, mine isn't. The ball actually does a better job centering it.
Under $20? That’s $50 worth of steel rod you’ve got there!
Ha! That's a great point, especially now! Although it doesn't have to be a solid rod like I've got there. A smaller piece of steel on a 4*4 could work for instance
Probably MOREthan that… I paid $50 for 12 lbs steel those solid rod gonna weigh more !! 20-30 ?? Lbs??
smart
I think its 4.5 times more accurate. Great Idea. But gonna run me and extra 70 bucks for 2 in steel bar and the ball. But it will do the job I want it to do. My wheels and tires weight almost 100 lbs each.
There were already weights on the tire..ya gotta take the old ones off first..lol
Step one. Remove all weights first.
You're right, but you can also not remove them, same principle. One of them is more gooder ;)
Thats all good for hubcentric,wont work for lugcentric
Every tire is mounted to the vehicle by use of a wheel. The wheel has a rim. The wheel is not a rim. When we speak of technical processes we need to use the correct nomenclature.
Don't do it. The ball bearing raises the center of gravity of the balancer to make it useless for most wheels (depending on the wheel offset). Just grind the aluminum lip flush on the upright rod and narrow the pointer with a grinder or file so the balancer rests on the tip of the point rather than the shoulder of the pointer (as it comes from the factory).
A large bolt that was flattened using sand paper on a piece of glass would work for the "plate." then attach to a upright
ua-cam.com/video/GHuqMcyqWj4/v-deo.html
works about as well as balancing a tire on your head. went out bought 99 dollar new balancer and 1.5 inch steel ball, leveled thick steel rod that ball sits on and tire still flops all the way to one side. NO idea how that balancer in video doesnt try to dump off rim when rim and tire is set on it. Only stays level with no rim and tire on it.