Built a rotor balancer

[Turbo Cow]

I've been trying to track down a vibration since upgrading to cross drilled powerstop rotors and pads. I have my own tire balancer and have balanced my tires multiple times. Only thing left is the rotors. The factory ones are out about 1/2oz. I'll test the powerstop ones tomorrow after I remove them from my car.

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[G.T.]

Very cool!

How does that work exactly? I mean when you spin it, you will see where it shakes, then what?

I do know the concept and I've seen the holes/grooves/areas where mass was removed in rotating parts to balance them, but I never looked into how it's actually done.

 

[Turbo Cow]

Very cool!

How does that work exactly? I mean when you spin it, you will see where it shakes, then what?

I do know the concept and I've seen the holes/grooves/areas where mass was removed in rotating parts to balance them, but I never looked into how it's actually done.

Its a simple gravity balancer. Rotate it 90 degrees and see if one side is heavier. Repeat. Find the heavier side and remove material. But im doing this to show proof to powerstop that its their rotors that are out of balance. They'll have to replace them or refund my money.

 

[G.T.]

I see. So that's what its called and how its done, thanks for educating me!

What are your findings on that rotor?

 

[Turbo Cow]

I see. So that's what its called and how its done, thanks for educating me!

What are your findings on that rotor?

The one in the picture is the factory rotor. It doesn't seem to be out by that much maybe a quarter to 1/2 oz.

 

[G.T.]

I'd be interested to see what you find with the Powerstop rotors when you get around to checking them.

 

[Cobra Jet]

Its a simple gravity balancer. Rotate it 90 degrees and see if one side is heavier. Repeat. Find the heavier side and remove material. But im doing this to show proof to powerstop that its their rotors that are out of balance. They'll have to replace them or refund my money.

Is Powerstop refusing to honor their warranty which is why you’re trying to demo the “out of balance” of their rotor(s)?

Will you be posting a video of the test?

 

[Craig Brown]

I have found that if you use a dial indicator on the rotors you will find that the rotor just needs to be clocked to eliminate the vibration. Mount the rotors with three of the lug nuts tighten and with the indicator at the very outside edge of the rotor lightly rotate and watch the indicator .003 to .005 is your tolerance. If it is greater than that take it off and rotate one stud and do it again until you find the sweet spot, use a marker and mark one stud end and the first hole on the rotor so you know where you started. They make shims if you can't dial it in with clocking alone. I think you chasing phantoms with the balancer. Although you did a nice job on it. If you have a wheel balancer why not just use that it will tell you all you need to know and it will give waits needed and location.

 

[Craig Brown]

I did tires for a guy, (he bought them from Tire Rack) and I was doing the mount and balance and it was requiring 6 to 8 OZs on each tire (unheard of) I rotated the tires 90 degrees ad tried again and it was the same thing. I took the tires off the rims and balanced just the rims; each rim was within 3 to 5 grams of balance. I sent an e-mail off to Tire Rack and explained what I had tried and what the values were and that they needed to refund him for these Mickey Thomson tires as well as refund him my labor rate because I am not doing this for nothing. They responded with "OK we will send a return shipping label" They paid for all of the labor without question. I ordered the same tires from my supplier and the mounted and balanced without any issues and he got the tires cheaper from me by $5.00 a tire.

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