Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing wobbly wire wheels

From new (2010) I have not been happy with the wheels on my Roadster sport. Had the wheels balanced twice by the dealer, they then admitted their balancing machine was not good. They were looking for a new one. I had the wheels balanced again at another garage who deals with classiscs and wire wheels a lot, still the car doesnt feel good. At slow speeds I get a shake/wobble/hop from the back, at around 80kph I get the wobbles in the steering wheel. Sometimes its worse then others, I think because the imbalance of one wheel one goes in and out of phase with other wheels. Today I tried to check how true they run and might have found the cause of the unrest in the car.
see here;
wobble movie 1
wobble movie 2
Looks a lot but the movement but at the edge of the rim is only 1mm.
Is this acceptable? Does anyone else have this issue with the sports rims? Is it worth getting the rims trued? Any advice please.
Cheers J

That doesn't look too bad to me. I've yet to see a wire wheel without some degree of run out. But it depends on the skill of the wheel balancer and whether they have the right cone attachment. If you were in the UK I'd say take it to the factory for a check over. Is everything tight on the suspension?
I agree that balance can go in and out of phase - I've had that effect on the motorway in an MG where cornering would bring on and take off wobble.

Is it me or is the edge of the tyre moving a lot more than the rim? It almost looks like the tyre's out of shape. It's not got flat-spotted by standing in one place for too long by any chance?

I don't think 1mm of run out will make much difference.

Are the wheels and or the tyres out of round ?

If the car has set a long time in one place the tyres might be flat spotted. This may or may not correct itself with some spirited driving to put some heat in the tyres.

If possible you could try to have the wheels balanced on the car. This balances the hub assembly as well.

TMG; Must be a trick on the eye. I measured the movement in the tire and the rim. Tire is marginally more but you would expect that because of the larger diameter. The tire was flatted a bit in 2011 when I was not able to drive the car for a longer period. But I have done 3000km since, so I thought that would have sorted itself by now.

Dave, probably true for cars, (one of the rims on my Plus4 was like this, used it as a spare) but on my bikes I never had wobbles like these. Makes you wonder why the difference.
Cheers J

Is there anyone near you that would be prepared to let you try their wheels on your car. This would prove for sure if the problem was in the wheels and tyres.

You need to check the inside edge of the rim, this is where I found the wheel to be out of round on my 4/4 Sport- possibly because only the outer edge is supported by the spokes the inner edge is overhung, Even more so on Roadster Sport with wider rims, buying a new wheel was cheapest fix.

Ask any lorry driver, a small amount of run out can cause enough steering movement to create fatigue over time. 1mm is not too much, however I would do something about it, even though it's not as bad as an unbalanced wheel.

Whire wheels are difficult to "true" but not impossible by a skilled person. You could try out a decent motorcycle wheel specialist. For adventure touring on motorcycles, a favourite has long been "Woodys Wheel Works"

They do car wheels as well, but shipping can be costly.

For any owner of a vehicle with wire wheels, the "tone" test is something one should perform about once a year. You take a small spanner or similar metal item of light but sturdy type, and tap/knock on each spoke, if any give off a tone that sounds hollow or too deep, it needs to be tightened to sound similar to the rest.

This only works if your wheel is already true, and most of the spokes are good. If too many are out, then tightening must be done equal to them all, one turn at a time so not to warp the rim. Even this is not likely to be 100 % successful. So check early and ofthen, to solve problems while they are small.

The best way is to use a spoke nipple torque wrench, this will show you the torque of every spoke, time consuming, but the best method.

Beside of all good recommendations I would also check the toe in. If it is about 2mm or a little more it can help a lot not to suffer too much from unwanted wheel movements. Too little toe in lets the wheels more (freedom) and flutter.