check front rim straightness

[55 50 Ron]

I tried to search for this, but search feature is less than useful. What procedure is used to check a Farmall 16 inch front rim for true non wobble running?

Also are there machine shops that can straighten a bad rim?

 

[Janicholson]

If it is a narrow front, drive one wheel up on a pair of staggered 2X4. the opposite wheel will now be off the ground. use a concrete block or other block that is tall enough to be at the raised rim. Use a pencil and a duct tape to make a pointer that almost touches the rim at the very edge of the bead. spin the wheel on its bearings and watch the rim to pencil point distance. If the rim is OK it will have less than 1/16 inch away from and toward the pencil, and away from and towards the axle for out of round less than 1/16 is needed. Jim

 

[55 50 Ron]

Thanks Jim. I should have been more specific. This is a wide front tractor and the wide front assembly is a Schwartz (sp) Your listed procedure should work on a wide front too. I'll try it. The previous rim was swapped with what I thought was a good rim. This good rim laid flat on a flat concrete floor. The previous rim had quite noticeable wobble in road gear and laid unstable on a flat concrete floor. The good rim is much better, but still shows slight wobble.

I will check the axle and spindle for straightness and the tightness of the wheel bearings too. I expect the bearings to be good and tight since just changing the rim reduced the wobble. The other front wheel runs perfectly true with no wobble.

Hope this all makes sense.

 

[Jim.ME]

(quoted from post at 19:36:09 10/25/23) Thanks Jim. I should have been more specific. This is a wide front tractor and the wide front assembly is a Schwartz (sp) Your listed procedure should work on a wide front too. I'll try it. The previous rim was swapped with what I thought was a good rim. This good rim laid flat on a flat concrete floor. The previous rim had quite noticeable wobble in road gear and laid unstable on a flat concrete floor. The good rim is much better, but still shows slight wobble.

I will check the axle and spindle for straightness and the tightness of the wheel bearings too. I expect the bearings to be good and tight since just changing the rim reduced the wobble. The other front wheel runs perfectly true with no wobble.

Hope this all makes sense.

Jim's suggestion will work on a wide front. You are checking that the flange of the rim bolted to the hub and the edge of the rim are running in parallel planes. If the two are not parallel, it will wobble.

 

[rustred]

its the same procedure on any rim. jack it up and spin it ,... check the wobble . same thing i used to do on them 10:00 x 20 rims with wedges on GM gravel trucks when tightening them. many times when following them down the hyway u could see them wobbling.

 

[caterpillar guy]

A lot will also depend on whether the wheel was ran loose or the rim is one that was run loose. Both will wear from that and not necessarily even. Might even need to shim it if it is to bad.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

You can use the same procedure used to check the rim runout to check the hub runout. Just remove the rim from the hub and set up the pointer near the outer edge of the hub.

If you want to get OCD about it, head over to your local Harbor Freight and pick up a dial indicator and a magnetic base. Watch a couple of videos on how to use the dial indicator, and use it to check runout on the hub.

Checking the rim on the tractor is a waste of time because you already know the rim wobbles. It doesn't sit on the floor quite flat so the outer part of the rim isn't running true. These are low-speed rims, so you might have a hard time finding one that is "perfect."

 

[kris Jensen]

I had a Farmalll A, with a bit of a wobble. Used a hydraulic jack to tweak the rim with the help of a few 2x4s
and a few creative press points It worked.
Any competent machine shop could do the job for you.
Jim Nicholson has a very good description of how to check for roundness