How are Budnik wheels supposed to be centered?

[Bowtieracing]

Are Budnik wheels centered by bolts or center hole?

I have a set of Famosa FLs wich i have bought 3 years ago straight from Budnik and my wheelshop cant get em balanced. When they are mounted on the balancer they are seriously out of run and cannot be balanced. The balancer machine locks and center wheel from "center" hole of the wheel.

[jannes_z-28]

On my Cobalts I had to very carefully knock out the centercap. The they could mount them on the balancer.

You have to put something soft on the backside and use a wood or plastic handle to knock it with.

Then use WD-40 or similar to lubricate the o-ring when repalceing the caps.

This is what Budnik told me to do.


Jan

[Bowtieracing]

Hello Jan!

Yes i have the center caps off and they have been in a local wheelshop but the wheels are straight. They do wobble about 5-6 mm !!

Was your wheels straight ? When i first got my wheels 3 years ago ( and still havent driven not a single meter..) the fronts were horrible. They had run out at least 10 mm each direction. So i took some digital video of em when spinning in a balancer machine without tire and send the data to Budnik. They asked me to send the fronts to them for a check . They measured wheels there and even one of my friends friend how runs porsche racing team near budnik went to there to verify at wheels were straight. As you might guess if was little bit confused of all this. I had personally seen how my fronts were out of the run and in Budniks they were good!?!?!

Now my project is finally(thank god) allmost done and i had my tires to be mounted on the wheels again. And same thing again. ( this time different wheel shop than first time) Wheels were so much out of the run at they could not get em balanced.

So what is wrong and were ?

[XcYZ]

Are you talking about radial runout of the wheel? What kind of balancing machine are you using and what holds the hub in place while it's being balanced?

[Bowtieracing]

Are you talking about radial runout of the wheel? What kind of balancing machine are you using and what holds the hub in place while it's being balanced?

I am talking side to side movement and yes there was minor movement on up/down too. Balancing machine was ( btw us made:) ) regular model wich drag the wheel agains mounting pad thru center hole of the wheel. Sorry my english here i dont know all the correct terms of wheel balancing.

I noticed the same side to side movement when i mounted my wheels on my car. I have it now on jack stands it can be easily seen when slowly turning wheel by hand. Around 3-4 mm !

[Budnik Wheels]

When wheels are manufactured we true every one down to less then .015" for "side to side" movement. Industry standard is .030. As you can see, we strive to be less then half of that on almost every order that leaves our door.
As for the "up and down", this variance is caused by the outer, and is absorved by suspension travel. If your wheel is truly out of standard, we can test for this hear at our facility, and if is, we will re-rim the wheel under warranty. However, if it is found to be less then industry standard, it will be returned to you. The majority of wheels manufactured are lug centric opposed to hub centric, unless otherwise specified. Reason for this is with a machined center, there is no way it is machined not true.

[Bowtieracing]

Okay great!! Do you mean my wheels are still under warranty - they havent seen been driven singe meter yet - but are 3 years old .

One thing do you mean at wheels are lug centric and cannot be balanced from hub ?
thanks!!

[Bowtieracing]

When wheels are manufactured we true every one down to less then .015" for "side to side" movement. Industry standard is .030. As you can see, we strive to be less then half of that on almost every order that leaves our door.
As for the "up and down", this variance is caused by the outer, and is absorved by suspension travel. If your wheel is truly out of standard, we can test for this hear at our facility, and if is, we will re-rim the wheel under warranty. However, if it is found to be less then industry standard, it will be returned to you. The majority of wheels manufactured are lug centric opposed to hub centric, unless otherwise specified. Reason for this is with a machined center, there is no way it is machined not true.

Okay so 0,015" is fine ? By my calulations its 3.81 mm ! Am i right here?

Today I bolted my rear wheels on ( I still don't have my front set up ready) So those fronts which were worse than rears and which I did return to you . ( I had the conversation then with Mr Alan Budnik himself I believe ) When I returned them to my wheel shop they had the same side to side movement as these rears. Shop manager told me they can't be balanced..! Well I thought the problem was the balancing machine which drags the wheel against the balancing machine from center hole. Now I did mount the rear wheels to my Dana 44 rear which is from 1996 corvette and has new bearings,new gm brake rotors,new U joints etc etc . Then I started the engine and put the second gear on at idle. Car sits on jackstands and at actual ride height. Left wheel has about 3 mm side to side movement and right about 4mm . You can see it clearly on my videos. The level is just for seeing it better on video. I did measure the movement with a dial indicator. Somehow I don't think this is acceptable, even if barely under 0,015"!

Left:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y145/emalikyltti/th_Budnikright.jpg (http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y145/emalikyltti/?action=view&current=Budnikright.flv)

Right:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y145/emalikyltti/th_Budnikleft.jpg (http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y145/emalikyltti/?action=view&current=Budnikleft.flv)

I know I am whining this after 4 years from purchace but I haven't had a chance to drive it / check it before on the car. Tires are brand new and wheels haven't ever been under the car on the road.

[jannes_z-28]

I had no problems with mine at all. My tireguy didn't complain and I haven't felt anything when driving.

BTW 0.015" is 0,38 mm

Are you from the Nordic countries, maybe Finland?


Jan

[Bowtieracing]

I had no problems with mine at all. My tireguy didn't complain and I haven't felt anything when driving.

BTW 0.015" is 0,38 mm
Jan



BTW 0.015" is 0,38 mm!!! I glad! Because i cant beleive my wheels are in a "industry standard" .

Yes -from Finland. I think Budnik dont have an idea how much is to ship em back ( wich i have allready done once with fronts )