RATZ! Number 4,328

[Eagle]

I've had a shimmy in the front of the 2000 XJ Sport. Now that the weather has broken, by playing musical wheels I have narrowed the culprit down to the left front. Next step is to check the balance, but my friend who has been my go-to guy for tire balance recently left the VW dealership and switched to a different profession. So I no longer have someone who has free access to a Hunter machine and, more importantly, knows how to use it. So I decided to start by checking it with a bubble balancer. I've had one for close to 60 years, but I haven't used it for at least 40 years -- if not more.

 

It took awhile, but I found it this afternoon. Only to discover that the new alloy wheels are laid out differently than the old steel wheels I used to work with. My balancer has a small platform with three cone-shaped protrusions for the lug holes in the wheel. Problem -- if I try to set the wheel on the balancer good side up, the tire rests on the floor long before the wheel mounting surface can contact the little cones. If I try to put the wheel on back side up -- the raised spokes hit the platform before the wheel can rest on the cones.

 

So I guess my trusty old wheel balancer is getting retired. I have one of these on order from Amazon:

 

 

It'll be interesting when it gets here and I try it out.

[Pete M]

I look forward to hearing about your experiences with it