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MG MGA - Vibration Issues

Well, I am still getting to know my car.
Today I took the car to a tire place in order to get the wheels balanced, because I was getting an intense SHAKE when driving around 60mph and over.
The guy assured me that they could do wire wheels.
I was not sure they guy was centering them a you would need to and is explained in Barney's pages.
Anyhow they performed the balancing, and although I was not too convinced of their centering technique, it did work. The shake is gone and the care is much more stable at high speed.
The mechanic took off some HUGE weight that the DPO had put on the wheels, and changed them for more discrete ones.

However I did realised that those old wire wheels are not running true. I could see the center hub of the wheel turning quite true but the rim was not.
Is this something I should worry about? Should I mess around tightening and un-tightening spokes (like you do on a bicycle) until it runs true? Or is it OK like this as long as it is well balanced? I wanted to know cos I wanted to paint the wheels soon and wanted to do all of this before.

BTW I also realised when they raised it that I have play in the upper front suspension arm. That will be the next job!


Gonzalo Ramos

Gonzalo,
You are beginning to find out that MG stands for Money Gobbler! Getting all these small issues sorted is half the fun of owning an MGA.
Mike
Mike Ellsmore

Gonzalo,
If your WW are 48 spoke wheels and are so rusted that you are thinking of painting them, I would recommend replacing them with new 60 spoke WW. The 48 spoke WW are so flexible that you are likely to start breaking spokes with any kind of hard driving.
David Werblow

I would tend to agree with David, it is easy to spend good money after bad on old wires.
Neil McGurk

Up to 1/8-inch run out at the rim of the wire wheel is generally tolerable, will balance out okay and run smooth, as long as the rim is round and concentric with the hub. It has been my experience that there may be no such thing as a straight steel wheel for the MGA. Having 1/4-inch wobble at the rim edge would likely cause problems, even is it was round, concentric and dynamically balanced.
Barney Gaylord

I will try to measure the run-out to see what it is.

Ok, I will just carry on with the wheels as they are, and as soon I have some money I will have to splash on some 60spoke chromes... ; )
Gonzalo Ramos

Gonzalo, did balancing your wire wheels rectify your 60mph shake? Worn driveshaft U joints could also be the culprit.
Mark J Michalak

Yes, the balancing did remove the 60mph shake (at least I did not fully waste my money).
I would say as much as it can be removed, because sometime the ondulations of the 'American cement highways' cause the car to inevitably shake a bit when driving at speed.

Now that you say it drive shaft U-joints will also be something I check next time I am under the car.

I checked the run-out of the wheels and indeed it seems at bit excessive. I measured up to 2-3mm at some points (1/8") which seems to be in line with Barney's tolerances.
2 of them are definitely battered, others look like new.


Anyhow the new wires are in the xmas wish list...
Gonzalo Ramos

This thread was discussed between 09/05/2010 and 11/05/2010

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