Greg,
You would have to bring up rim wobble wouldn’t you! The only time I drove the '50, 3604 that I bought in Sep.,'06 was when I tried to drive it the 40 miles to my home right after handing over the check. The brakes locked up on the tollway and the last half of the trip was on the back of a car hauler. The one thing I did notice at 55mph was that there was a lot of side ways vibration which I attributed to worn front end and 30 year old dry rotted tires. All is new now 7.00-15 bias ply on two-piece rims, and I'm still finishing up the mechanicals. I hope to be able to drive it round the block in a month or so when the weather breaks.
So, thanks to you, as soon as the sun comes up I'm gonna get out the indicator and spin the rims to see just how much run out I've got. I realize now that I should have checked this before I spent a grand on blasting, painting, mounting tires, tubes and flaps.
Do you have any idea how they straighten the rims? Do they have a fixture that they put in press of some sort? Is there a spec on the run out for a rim? Can it be done with the tires mounted? I would very much like to see how that is done. As far as I know there is no one in the Chicago, IL USA area that does that. All the dealers around here tell you of you have a bent rim to replace it.
I grew up with bias ply tires and never remember there being a problem with them other than they had a short life span. The first radial tire I had was on a new '75 TR-6 Triumph I bought for my "Big Old Wife". The only thing different that I noticed was that it coasted a lot farther with the clutch pushed in, (lower rolling resistance). No difference in ride as far as I remember.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
