Anyone have wobbly repro Magnum road wheels? UPDATE! SOLVED!

[1969chargerrtse]

One of the issues bugging me with my car is that it vibrates after going over 60mph.  I had thought it was the drive shaft as the steering wheel is vibration free.  Also the shifter doesn't vibrate either, but I felt it was coming from the center of the car, somewhere?  Well, today I jacked up the rear and ran the car in drive.  I was shocked to see the rear wheels are not rolling true.  They kind of have a wobble to them.  I took my spare and threw that on and it was REAL bad.  I did feel at about 30 mph the back end of the car kinda going up and down like I had a tire with a bubble in the tread. Makes me wonder if they are just poorly made or the past owner couldn't drive for beans and hit curbes.  Anyone else have a similar issue with their wheels?

[TUFCAT]

Mine are perfectly straight and true.

[Charger-Bodie]

Mine are perfectly straight and true.

Ditto.

[1969chargerrtse]

I was afraid of that.  Thanks guys.  Money is tight as we all know.  I'll just consider it a governor to keep me within the speed limits.  Because I'm not buying new rims.  It rolls just fine (up to 60 ). 

[Charger-Bodie]

I was afraid of that.  Thanks guys.  Money is tight as we all know.  I'll just consider it a governor to keep me within the speed limits.  Because I'm not buying new rims.  It rolls just fine (up to 60 ). 

Have you had them balanced?

[1969chargerrtse]

I was afraid of that.  Thanks guys.  Money is tight as we all know.  I'll just consider it a governor to keep me within the speed limits.  Because I'm not buying new rims.  It rolls just fine (up to 60 ). 

Have you had them balanced?

They have weights on the inside.  I don't think these are balance-able.  I may ask a friend to borrow two good wheels and swap them and then take it for a spin.

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

IIRC the repro wheels are not hub centric.  I'm pretty sure mine stated so right on the box.  You have to take it to a shop that is able to balance the wheels using the lug holes to mount it to the balancer & not the center hole.

I have'nt found a place locally that has this and I had the shop do the best they cound with the hub fixture.....I think this fact is contributing to my vibrations at 62-68 mph as well...
Maybe a winter project to fiind a shop that has this fixture locally....

[1969chargerrtse]

IIRC the repro wheels are not hub centric.  I'm pretty sure mine stated so right on the box.  You have to take it to a shop that is able to balance the wheels using the lug holes to mount it to the balancer & not the center hole.

I haven't found a place locally that has this and I had the shop do the best they could with the hub fixture.....I think this fact is contributing to my vibrations at 62-68 mph as well...
Maybe a winter project to find a shop that has this fixture locally....

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOh.  I'll have to look into that, just not now. Winters coming. It starts, and runs.  Thats good enough for this season.  I swapped the rear wheel to the front today and the ride is different.  I think you have something there.  Many thanks.

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Winters coming. It starts, and runs.  Thats good enough for this season.

I say the same thing...

Sad part is that I havent tried to have mine rebalanced since I got them........in 2002

[NMike]

  I took my spare and threw that on and it was REAL bad.

so when you placed the spare on the car, it also wobbled when driven? that would be a bad flange.

[resq302]

He said he swapped the rear to the front and it made the rear feel much better without the wobbling, so it can not be a bad flange.

Also, every place that I know that balances wheels and tires does it from the hub.  I have yet to hear of a place that balances the rims and tires by "bolting" it up to a mock axle.  To me, that would be a huge hassle and waste of time and money since not all bolt patterns are the same.  Sounds like a lame excuse to me from the makers of the company.   Also, back in the day prior to having the high speed balancers they do now, they used to use a bubble balancer.  Basically, you had this special adapter that went through the hub and had a bubble, similar to a level, in the center.  Once you got that bubble within the red ring, the wheel was supposedly balanced.  They never really were acurate, hence, the new version for high speed computer balancing.

[Charger-Bodie]

He said he swapped the rear to the front and it made the rear feel much better without the wobbling, so it can not be a bad flange.

Also, every place that I know that balances wheels and tires does it from the hub.  I have yet to hear of a place that balances the rims and tires by "bolting" it up to a mock axle.  To me, that would be a huge hassle and waste of time and money since not all bolt patterns are the same.  Sounds like a lame excuse to me from the makers of the company.   Also, back in the day prior to having the high speed balancers they do now, they used to use a bubble balancer.  Basically, you had this special adapter that went through the hub and had a bubble, similar to a level, in the center.  Once you got that bubble within the red ring, the wheel was supposedly balanced.  They never really were acurate, hence, the new version for high speed computer balancing.

THey also used to have spin balancers that spun the whel and tire ON the car, Which balanced the Tire wheel and drum (or rotor) at the same time. Id like to get me one of those machines!

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Hunter makes a great machine that does a "Road Force" balance.  real nice piece

http://www.basstire.com/roadforce/index.html

http://www.gsp9700.com/pub/images/flash/gsp9710/allmovies.cfm

[resq302]

Chris,

Thats the same one the GSP model that my old job (ETD tire center) now uses.

[1969chargerrtse]

  I took my spare and threw that on and it was REAL bad.

so when you placed the spare on the car, it also wobbled when driven? that would be a bad flange.

No.  I jacked the car up on the rear and ran it in drive.  The two rear wheels didn't roll 100% straight, they had  a small wobble to them.  When I put on the rear it wobbled real bad as obvious the rim was bent.  I put the rear wheel on the front and the car can go a little with the rim swapping.  I'm pretty sure it's balance issue as Brian mentioned from the start.

I'm looking for one of those machines that they balalnce the wheel while on the car, as mentioned earlier.  No rush.

[NMike]

if you can see the wobble on the rim, it is a bad rim or a rim that isn't mounted 100%. tire balance is a slight up and down movement of the tire while running it in the air. you can feel it more than see.

[1969chargerrtse]

I hate to go back and forth with this, but yesterday I was on the highway for a good 1/2 hour doing 60ish and it really feels like its coming from the driveshaft near the rear end hump on the floor.  I have the rim from the rear on the front and I can feel slight vibration, but the rear floor area really shakes at 65 or faster.  I've looked at the drive shaft several times, there is no u joint play, I can't understand what would be off?  Would a poorly balanced shaft really vibrate that much?  I keep going back and forth, wheels/shaft.

[NMike]

take the drums off and mount a dial indicator. check the runout of the flange. examine the driveshaft and look for where a weight may have come off. is your trans mount good?

[1969chargerrtse]

take the drums off and mount a dial indicator. check the runout of the flange. examine the driveshaft and look for where a weight may have come off. is your trans mount good?

Will do (just not now).  The trani mount is new.  I don't get any shifter shake either?

[bull]

Are these the Wheel Vintiques?

[RallyeMike]

IRC the repro wheels are not hub centric.  I'm pretty sure mine stated so right on the box.

Knowing how 98% of shops balance wheels and tires, why would any respectable company make a wheel with a non-centric center? That's just plain crap!

I hate to go back and forth with this, but yesterday I was on the highway for a good 1/2 hour doing 60ish and it really feels like its coming from the driveshaft near the rear end hump on the floor.  I have the rim from the rear on the front and I can feel slight vibration, but the rear floor area really shakes at 65 or faster.  I've looked at the drive shaft several times, there is no u joint play, I can't understand what would be off?  Would a poorly balanced shaft really vibrate that much?  I keep going back and forth, wheels/shaft. shruggy

Yes, and unbalanced or bent driveshaft will do this. Any respectable driveshaft shop can check runout and balance for you. Jack up the car, remove 4-bolts and take it down there. Not fixed? Check the driveline angles which can make the same vibrations. Search the site and you'll find some driveshaft angle info. You need to buy a cheap angle-finder tool for this.

Wheels: No steel wheel is perfect. Manufacturers used to always punch the valve stem hole at the most out-round location. Tires are also always slightly out of round, and the manufacturers usually mark the tires with a dot to line up with valve stem hole. Indexing the dot with the valve stem will help round-out the wheel and tire combo. Most all tire stores don't have a clue about this, so the tires are never properly mounted. Even if you mention it, they say "it does not matter", or "we can fix it on the road force balancer". Don't settle for this.  You cant fix eccentricity or out-of-round on a balance machine! If these wheels are really so crappy that they cant even build them with centric hubs, they may be out of round beyond normal tolerances too, and then if not mounted properly with the tires, well..... you g-g-g-g-et the p-p-p-picture.

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

IRC the repro wheels are not hub centric.  I'm pretty sure mine stated so right on the box.

Knowing how 98% of shops balance wheels and tires, why would any respectable company make a wheel with a non-centric center? That's just plain crap!

Beats me, they've been doing it since 1982 apparently....check their warranty page......last sentence....

http://www.specialtywheelsltd.org/warranty-info.html

[lilwendal]

I had to go through two sets of Wheel Vintiques before I recieved an 'acceptable' set.
I recomend having your tire shop mount the rim to the balancer and see how it spins prior to the tire being mounted.
That will show you if the rim is true.  All the WV ones where off to a degree.
Also they have a strict policy of not taking rims back once  a tire has been mounted so it verifes the rims quality prior to mounting.
I had two rims that where almost a 1/4 inch off.  They must have no quality assurance there.

[RallyeMike]

Beats me, they've been doing it since 1982 apparently....check their warranty page......last sentence.... rotz

Maybe their slogan, instead of "Manufacturing High Quality Wheels Since 1982, should be "Manufacturing on a Quality High Since 1982" 

[chicken-deluxe]

I had gotten 1 bad one from a set of 4.    15x7's.   I chased a vibration this summer.  Still have a little.   Here are some things. 


1.   Tailishaft bushing worn in trans.
2.   Bad trans mount
3.   Bad rim
4.   Bad tire
5.   Bent drive shaft
6.   Bent axle
7.   Bad axle bearing race or bearing
8.  Unbalanced rear drum.
and what was causing most of mine....

9.  Wrong AXLE Studs disallowing rim to mount completely against drum.   I had a shop change my long studs when too busy and they installed studs with too long of a collar and the lugs never snugged the rim up!   It wobbled over 60 real bad.

10.   I also had a slipped front spring eye bushing in my expensive Eaton leaf springs.  Not sure if this contributed as the springs were changed at the same time as the wheel studs.

Hopefully these ideas help.

    Another one is an external balanced converter on a internal balalnced engine or vice versal

[TUFCAT]

I have a set of 15X7 Wheel Vintique Magnum 500 Wheels (bought in 2006) that had no issues at all. They balanced out perfectly twice with minimal weights- - and two different sets of tires.  I had redline radials mounted on them before the white stripes. 

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

10.   I also had a slipped front spring eye bushing in my expensive Eaton leaf springs.  Not sure if this contributed as the springs were changed at the same time as the wheel studs.

Hmmmmm....look anything like this?

[Chatt69chgr]

I would agree with the suggestion to take the rims down to your friendly tire place and check them to see if they are bent.  You don't need to spin them.  Just put them on the machine that does the spinning and slowly rotate.  Rig up a fixture to hold a piece of wood or whatever near the wheel and you will immediately see if the wheel is bent.  Should be possible to see if they are out of round too.  You would check for out of round on the inner bead surface.  Check for bent condition from the outside of the wheel.  And don't mount any tires either.  I wanted to work up a set of steels to use with dog dishes as an alternative set of wheels.  I bought 9 rims from the junkyard.  Found 4 good ones, one good enough for a spare.  Rest were all bent.  Only paid $10 apiece so just took the bent ones back to the yard and got rid of them.  My next door neighbor is the mgr of the tire store I deal with so he let me do my own checking early in the morning right after they opened before any customers got there. 

[1969chargerrtse]

So check this out.  I was putting on new exhaust gaskets on my manifolds.  You know their time was up as they already had 2,500 miles on them.
Anyway, I noticed that one of my trani bolts down near the starter was hanging out.  I mean like within seconds of just falling out of the mount hole, also the lower starter bolt was missing.  I replaced both bolts and finished the gasket job.  Well, 2 weeks later (today) I go for one of my " Charger in the wild " drives for about 2 hours (Of course no one ever sees me?) and I'm thinking is it possible that those missing bolts have anything to do with the vibration over 60mph?   Hmmmm, I'm on a 3 lane highway, early in the am, open road, big engine, fast car, what the heck.  I put my foot down on the fuel, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80!   NO friggin vibration!!   WTF?, so lo and behold, while repairing the exhaust leak I fixed my vibrating problem.  Driving in the car is a whole different feeling for me now.  Before I felt so contained, here I was driving around in a 40 grand classic muscle car ( invested but not necessarily valued at  )and I couldn't go fast?  Who would of thought? Problem solved.

My good buddy Brian (1hot68 ) recommended these gaskets for the car.  If you're putting on exhaust gaskets, use these.  I have nothing but fantastic things about them, you'll put them on once, not watch them blow out like the standard issue pair I used first time.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/PERCY-S-SEAL-4-GOOD-EXHAUST-HEADER-GASKETS-BB-Chrysler_W0QQitemZ250195000077QQihZ015QQcategoryZ33631QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247

Thanks Brian. 

[tan top]

   that was a easy fix ..........  wonder why they backed out though !!! ..think i would check them again after a 100 miles or something , just to see if they had worked loose out of curiosity

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Gotta go out & check mine now!  Good find

[1969chargerrtse]

  that was a easy fix ..........  wonder why they backed out though !!! ..think i would check them again after a 100 miles or something , just to see if they had worked loose out of curiosity

Well I know the big trani bolt didn't have a lock washer on it for some odd reason?  I wonder who's fault that is?  ( That's Mopar people slapping me ).