Re: Is it necessary to balance Delorean wheels *on* the car?

["Dave Swingle <swingle@xxxx>" <swingle@xxxx>]

I've had mine balanced off the car with no particular difficulty. 

The theory behind balancing them ON the car is that you will also 
take out any imbalances in the brake rotors. In most modern cars, 
quality brake rotors are balanced themselves so that wheel and rotor 
balances are independent. I suppose the on-the-car threory holds 
water if you believe the brake rotors to be unbalanced.

If you look at other car rotors they are typically balanced by 
grinding away some material at the outer edge. Since the DeLorean 
uses single-plate rotors this would be hard to do, so they do not 
appear to be balanced. I don't recall seeing any balance weights on 
the inside of the rotors either. 

Just to complicate things, keep in mind that the mass of the brake 
rotor relative to the tire is relatively concentrated near the 
center, so the rotor would have to be significantly out of balance to 
cause a problem.

So - what to do? I still balance mine off the car, but I know just as 
many who'll argue the other way. Turns into a religious argument 
(like motor oil additives, not to start another one. . . ).

Also - your are correct on another point, there are not many shops 
that will do on-the-car balancing, you'd probably have to go to a 
place that is used to dealing with exotics. 

Dave Swingle

--- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Scott Gardner" <gardners14@xxxx> 
wrote:
> In all the DW articles I've seen involving removing the wheels, they
> always say to mark which wheel stud is closest to the tire's valve 
stem
> so that you can put the wheels back on in the same orientation that 
they
> were removed. Also, at least one of the articles says that because 
of
> the suspension used on the Delorean, the wheels must be balanced 
*on*
> the car, rather than on a static or dynamic balancing machine. I've
> never heard of this with any other car, and wouldn't even know 
where to
> go to have it done. Does anyone know the reasoning behind these
> practices? I'm at a loss as to how a wheel that was properly 
balanced
> off of the car could introduce problems once it's mounted on the 
car.
> Likewise, I don't see how you could remove a balanced wheel, rotate 
it
> 90 degrees, put it back on the car, and end up with an imbalance as 
a
> result. Can anyone enlighten me?
> 
> Thanks,
> Scott Gardner