Shopping for new tires for the MG, and running into the same problem I had 22 years ago: Finding a shop who can balance them. The holes in the stock rims are too small to fit the spindles on the machines. I had found a shop back then who could balance them, but they are no longer around. Some Google fu turned up a bubble balancer on Amazon, and I do seem to remember hearing of such a device. Anybody have any advice? The car doesn't go on highways and I don't do any autocrossing, so as long as the wheels are more or less in balance I'm OK with that.
Bubble balancer
- Thread starter Dave Sherman
- Start date
Have you actually tried driving it as is? Might be close enough. If not bubble balancers were used for decades before spin balancers came about.
I haven't put the new tires on yet, I just inquired at my usual tire shop and brought one of the hubcaps with me to size their balancing machine. They'll swap the tires since I would have to get them from Tirerack and bring the wheels to them, but they won't be able to balance them.
Take a front caliper (drum?) off and use the wheel bearing as a static balancer. Spin the tire-- if it reverses direction and stops, add a weight at 12 o'clock. Repeat until it stops in random locations. Use valve stem as reference.
Are these wire spoke wheels? Running tubes in radials? Lugs or knock-offs?
Are these wire spoke wheels? Running tubes in radials? Lugs or knock-offs?
Grew up with bubble balanced tires (bias ply) without complaint.
You say it'll never be highway driven...you're good to bubble balance and go then.
Do these balancers disassemble such that a narrower spindle -from the manufacturer- can be installed?
You say it'll never be highway driven...you're good to bubble balance and go then.
Do these balancers disassemble such that a narrower spindle -from the manufacturer- can be installed?
I've balanced many a motorcycle tire/wheel by spinning on the axle supported by jack stands. You may have to make a dummy axle of some sort, but a similar process could be employed.
This technique depends heavily upon the friction in your bearings.
I think I'd contact Marc Parnes and ask if he has a solution for your MG wheels. Am guessing with the dozens of adapters he has for motorcycles, and the generic two-cone solution, than something can be found. Good chance you are not the first MG owner to ask. His bearings are so low-friction that if you don't put the thumbscrews on the cones 180° apart the thumbscrews will rotate to the bottom. I've balanced over 50 motorcycle tires with my Marc Parnes balancer. Never a problem up to 120 MPH.
http://www.marcparnes.com/
Thanks all, thanks to Youtube, I found videos on using a bubble balancer. The one I found on Amazon says it will work down to a 1.5" hole, and the holes in the Midget's rims are about 1 and 9/16". Probably something to add to the collection of tools that get used once a decade or so. 
How long have you owned the Midget? They are small.
Another reason to balance on the car hub, provided you can reduce the friction enough.
You may have already seen threads or ideas like this, but here is one from MGExp forum. They used a modified Honda wheel hub as an adapter for the lug-centric Rostyle wheel. The last picture in the first posting shows how the “center” hole in the wheel isn’t exactly so.
https://www.mgexp.com/forum/mgb-and-gt-forum.1/hf-bubble-balancer-and-rostyle-wheels.2853632/
https://www.mgexp.com/forum/mgb-and-gt-forum.1/hf-bubble-balancer-and-rostyle-wheels.2853632/
22 years. It was in dire need of new tires back then as they were badly flat spotted and cracked, but remarkably they held air long enough to roll it on a trailer and into my garage. At least the current tires have held up quite well, but 22 years is too old.
Interesting, I did not know that. I have no idea how the last shop balanced them. Guess I should take some measurements between the lugs and the holes and see how they sit on the bubble balancer as they are now.