wheel balance

[John Fleming]

The tires on my Plymouth P15  coupe are 6.70 15    bias ply . When the tires were installed they were spin balanced on the car .  The result was a great ride with no balance problems . Recently I replaced front brake drums and rotated the tires.  I now have unbalanced tires and steering wheel shake . As of this writing I have not found a doing on car spin balance in Bradenton or Tampa Florida . If you know of shop in this area please let me know. Should I try a bubble balance ? Can a bubble balance be used with the brake drum attached ? On P15 cars tire wheel and brake drum should be balanced together. I request your thoughts on wheel balance . 

[Matt Wilson]

I'll admit that I have no experience with what I'm about to suggest, but one possible solution might be balancing beads.  I've heard good things about them being able to balance tires that couldn't be balanced by conventional means.  You take the Schrader valve out of the valve stem and pour the beads in.  Due to moisture that's present in air, some types of beads will tend to clump together over time, resulting in a loss of effectiveness, but I've read that certain newer types will not clump.  I think glass beads are one such type, but you'll need to do your research.  I suppose you could add a moisture separator/filter to your air compressor to help with that as well.

There are some naysayers out there, who say beads can't work, but it seems like those folks had not actually tried them, and I've seen enough positive testimonials to more-or-less convince me.  And other folks tell me they have been accepted as legitimate for decades. 

They don't seem to be expensive, so it may be worth a shot.

[Plymouthy Adams]

time marches on and leaves the old stuff in its wake...now this does not leave you in the wind but technically as you have found it leaves you in the wings looking.  Not familiar with your area but I will suggest that you try and find a local car club member of vehicles of this era and ask about who they use or if some member may do a tad of this stuff on the side with the equipment he himself owns.   Also, you can use craigslist and search for the proper older equipment for your own use.  It is usually cost effective purchasing these tools.