Wheel Balancing Stand

[Rust_Belt_Pete]

I have a question, I have a no-mar wheel balancing stand that I bought along with the no mar tire changer when I used to do track days on a motorcycle. I manually balanced the weights on the stand and tested them up to 160mph many times over and it worked quite well.
The stand also came with large cones for clamping passenger wheels for balancing.
Now I am pretty sure that my ford focus wheels center using the tapered lug nuts.
If I use the cone and clamp the wheel and balance it using the bore/center of the wheel will it cause problems? Are stick on weights ok on OEM aluminum wheels?

This is the balancing stand Im talking about:
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/8KLRf7TtIhY/maxresdefault.jpg

 

[OneEyeJack]

Give it a try. The stick on weights depend on a clean smooth surface. They don't know the difference between a motorcycle and any other vehicle.

In my younger days I always used an Alemite strobe balancer. It took some care in use but produced excellent results for bikes, cars, trucks, trailers and race cars.

The Alemite was an upgrade from a tub of water and a bubble level and a homemade device just like yours and it worked, too.

 

[eljefino]

Motorcycle tires static balance well because there isn't much cross section. And they might be made to better tolerances than car tires.

When you skip the two-plane balance on wider tires, there's more of a chance of it grabbing your steering wheel and wiggling that in and out, and being felt.

Sticky weights are great on aluminum. Wipe down the rims first with brake cleaner or even gasoline. Do it on the inside back where noone really sees it. If you get the wheel weight pliers from HF ($4!) you can remove your old crimpy weights and even reuse them for part of your new weight.

 

[Kawiguy454]

^ +1 the wider car tires can have different balance points on either side of the wheel. the symptom will be wiggling steering in front and just vibration in back.

 

[Johnny2Bad]

Some wheels are located on the wheel hub by a centre ring, others by lug nuts.

You can use the lug nuts alone provided the centre hole in the wheel is larger than the centering ring on the vehicle.

Aftermarket centering rings are sold for use on vehicles that need them, but are not absolutely necessary.

Use the lug nuts for your balancer or the rings if they fit (perfectly), whatever works.