Dented wheel rim

Topics

Dented wheel rim

Far Canal
5 years ago

Anybody here tried truing up a wheel rim with a flat spot in it with a good result?. It's a steel/chrome one. Front 21 inch.
If so how did you go about it?.
I reckon I could make an accurate hardwood radius section and use it to hit the bejeezus from the inside of the rim outwards.
Flat spot is really only on one side of the rim.
I watched a guy in Sydney years ago straighten up a cast alloy front wheel on my guzzi, he used heat and a hammer with a suitable drift. Improved it enormously.

Grease Monkey
5 years ago

No harm in giving it a go mate, I know I would, you just got to be a bit real about the safety side of it, meaning the rim isn't structurally compromised.

paulybronco
5 years ago

Quoting Far Canal on 29 Nov 2019 07:42 AM
Anybody here tried truing up a wheel rim with a flat spot in it with a good result?. It's a steel/chrome one. Front 21 inch.
If so how did you go about it?.
I reckon I could make an accurate hardwood radius section and use it to hit the bejeezus from the inside of the rim outwards.
Flat spot is really only on one side of the rim.
I watched a guy in Sydney years ago straighten up a cast alloy front wheel on my guzzi, he used heat and a hammer with a suitable drift. Improved it enormously.

I would get a wheel specialist to retrue it. Where do you live?

Far Canal
5 years ago

I'm in Tassie Paul. Don't know of any wheel specialists here.
Anyway had a crack at it today, made a hardwood inside and outside diameter and took to it with a big ballpein hammer. No good, just could not get a decent swing at it because the hub was in the way. Next unlaced the hub and tried hitting it with a sledgehammer while the missus held the rim. No fricken joy this time either.
Finally tried clamping everything together in an engineers vice. This looked to be the business, you could see the dent being forced right up to the correct diameter.

As soon as I took it out of the vice it returned to it's dented shape so I gave up. I knew 2 blokes who had taken a 21 inch drop center rims off their bikes so rang em both to see if perchance they still had them. One didn't, the other did but didn't want to sell it.
I took a 21 inch rim off my softail a few years ago. Not a drop center one, a radius one. So decided to lace that one up for the time being. It is in great nick and all the spokes and nipples are in much better shape than the ones on the dented wheel. So that'll do for now.

So the 2008 rim is laced to a 1984 bike, cripes!, a bit of a time gap there. Like a Roman soldier with a laptop. At least it will be safe. Now just have to true it all up. You can use one of those fancy benchtop wheel stands to do it but I like to do it in place. I've seen another bloke do it just holding one end of the axle in a vice.

Ken in Cairns
5 years ago

You are lucky you know the ancient art of lacing a rim and hub.
Good job, even if you couldn't repair the original.
You probably have to use heat, which will kill the chrome, but you gave it a crack.

paulybronco
5 years ago

Quoting Far Canal on 30 Nov 2019 07:45 AMedited: 30 Nov 2019 08:25 AM
I'm in Tassie Paul. Don't know of any wheel specialists here.
Anyway had a crack at it today, made a hardwood inside and outside diameter and took to it with a big ballpein hammer. No good, just could not get a decent swing at it because the hub was in the way. Next unlaced the hub and tried hitting it with a sledgehammer while the missus held the rim. No fricken joy this time either.
Finally tried clamping everything together in an engineers vice. This looked to be the business, you could see the dent being forced right up to the correct diameter.

As soon as I took it out of the vice it returned to it's dented shape so I gave up. I knew 2 blokes who had taken a 21 inch drop center rims off their bikes so rang em both to see if perchance they still had them. One didn't, the other did but didn't want to sell it.
I took a 21 inch rim off my softail a few years ago. Not a drop center one, a radius one. So decided to lace that one up for the time being. It is in great nick and all the spokes and nipples are in much better shape than the ones on the dented wheel. So that'll do for now.

So the 2008 rim is laced to a 1984 bike, cripes!, a bit of a time gap there. Like a Roman soldier with a laptop. At least it will be safe. Now just have to true it all up. You can use one of those fancy benchtop wheel stands to do it but I like to do it in place. I've seen another bloke do it just holding one end of the axle in a vice.

Love the determination and ingenuity.....good stuff! You can use a pen/pencil taped to the front fork, lightly touch the rim then spin it....it will stop where the buckle is. This will help you true the wheel up.

Far Canal
5 years ago

Quoting Ken in Cairns on 30 Nov 2019 09:07 AMedited: 30 Nov 2019 09:07 AM
You are lucky you know the ancient art of lacing a rim and hub.
Good job, even if you couldn't repair the original.
You probably have to use heat, which will kill the chrome, but you gave it a crack.

Yes Ken. I'd imagine heat would kill the chrome. I'd love to know how to fix it without doing that though. Maybe you can't?. The dented original rim was in astoundingly good shape considering how long it had sat idle (30 years near the coast). At least I did not fuck up the chrome on it with my agricultural effort.
Lacing them up is not that hard and I find it quite enjoyable compared to my regular work. The workshop manual describes it in detail. Not that I am an expert. Have laced up a rear wheel on my old Honda 750 four and a fatter rim on my 2008FXST. Probably best if you don't get pissed or take drugs first would be my tip.

Far Canal
5 years ago

Quoting Far Canal on 30 Nov 2019 07:45 AMedited: 30 Nov 2019 08:25 AM
I'm in Tassie Paul. Don't know of any wheel specialists here.
Anyway had a crack at it today, made a hardwood inside and outside diameter and took to it with a big ballpein hammer. No good, just could not get a decent swing at it because the hub was in the way. Next unlaced the hub and tried hitting it with a sledgehammer while the missus held the rim. No fricken joy this time either.
Finally tried clamping everything together in an engineers vice. This looked to be the business, you could see the dent being forced right up to the correct diameter.

As soon as I took it out of the vice it returned to it's dented shape so I gave up. I knew 2 blokes who had taken a 21 inch drop center rims off their bikes so rang em both to see if perchance they still had them. One didn't, the other did but didn't want to sell it.
I took a 21 inch rim off my softail a few years ago. Not a drop center one, a radius one. So decided to lace that one up for the time being. It is in great nick and all the spokes and nipples are in much better shape than the ones on the dented wheel. So that'll do for now.

So the 2008 rim is laced to a 1984 bike, cripes!, a bit of a time gap there. Like a Roman soldier with a laptop. At least it will be safe. Now just have to true it all up. You can use one of those fancy benchtop wheel stands to do it but I like to do it in place. I've seen another bloke do it just holding one end of the axle in a vice.

Quoting paulybronco on 30 Nov 2019 09:53 AM
Love the determination and ingenuity.....good stuff! You can use a pen/pencil taped to the front fork, lightly touch the rim then spin it....it will stop where the buckle is. This will help you true the wheel up.

Thanks Paul. This wheel was visually untrue when spun. After re-lacing I put the octapus strap between the fork legs to adjust the "hop", (in the picture), up and down play. But then wasn't sure if you do the "wobble" (side to side play) first and called it quits for the day to peruse the manual. Been a while since I've done one. I have seen the artline texta method too.
When I laced a nice fat front rim on to my softail I used cable ties on the fork legs as a guide for the side to side play, got it to within a tally ho paper thickness tollerance. That was an aluminium rim though. The steel ones are welded and don't reckon they are ever perfect in the first place.
In the old Honda 750 four manuals it says + or - 2mm is acceptable runout! side to side and up and down. So you may have your rim out by 2mm at one end and 2mm the other way at the other end (4mm overall) and that was considered ok. Strangely enough the tyre seems to take up some of the difference and the balance weights help I guess help.
What the blazers! I get a bit of a kick out of trying to do it myself anyway.

paulybronco
5 years ago

Quoting Far Canal on 30 Nov 2019 07:45 AMedited: 30 Nov 2019 08:25 AM
I'm in Tassie Paul. Don't know of any wheel specialists here.
Anyway had a crack at it today, made a hardwood inside and outside diameter and took to it with a big ballpein hammer. No good, just could not get a decent swing at it because the hub was in the way. Next unlaced the hub and tried hitting it with a sledgehammer while the missus held the rim. No fricken joy this time either.
Finally tried clamping everything together in an engineers vice. This looked to be the business, you could see the dent being forced right up to the correct diameter.

As soon as I took it out of the vice it returned to it's dented shape so I gave up. I knew 2 blokes who had taken a 21 inch drop center rims off their bikes so rang em both to see if perchance they still had them. One didn't, the other did but didn't want to sell it.
I took a 21 inch rim off my softail a few years ago. Not a drop center one, a radius one. So decided to lace that one up for the time being. It is in great nick and all the spokes and nipples are in much better shape than the ones on the dented wheel. So that'll do for now.

So the 2008 rim is laced to a 1984 bike, cripes!, a bit of a time gap there. Like a Roman soldier with a laptop. At least it will be safe. Now just have to true it all up. You can use one of those fancy benchtop wheel stands to do it but I like to do it in place. I've seen another bloke do it just holding one end of the axle in a vice.

Quoting paulybronco on 30 Nov 2019 09:53 AM
Love the determination and ingenuity.....good stuff! You can use a pen/pencil taped to the front fork, lightly touch the rim then spin it....it will stop where the buckle is. This will help you true the wheel up.

Quoting Far Canal on 30 Nov 2019 11:13 AM
Thanks Paul. This wheel was visually untrue when spun. After re-lacing I put the octapus strap between the fork legs to adjust the "hop", (in the picture), up and down play. But then wasn't sure if you do the "wobble" (side to side play) first and called it quits for the day to peruse the manual. Been a while since I've done one. I have seen the artline texta method too.
When I laced a nice fat front rim on to my softail I used cable ties on the fork legs as a guide for the side to side play, got it to within a tally ho paper thickness tollerance. That was an aluminium rim though. The steel ones are welded and don't reckon they are ever perfect in the first place.
In the old Honda 750 four manuals it says + or - 2mm is acceptable runout! side to side and up and down. So you may have your rim out by 2mm at one end and 2mm the other way at the other end (4mm overall) and that was considered ok. Strangely enough the tyre seems to take up some of the difference and the balance weights help I guess help.
What the blazers! I get a bit of a kick out of trying to do it myself anyway.

Think you have it sussed young man, good to see some of the lost art of doing it yourself coming back

Ken in Cairns
5 years ago

If you have a press, you could make a slightly undersized/oversized die to allow for spring back of the metal if doing it cold. Another way might be some sort of rolling former, and work it back and forth as you increase the pressure, maybe worth tinkering with if you want to work out what works just in case you need to do it again. But the rim is made with pretty heavy gauge material, so you would need a good roller set up.

Topics

Dented wheel rim

Dented wheel rim

Far Canal

Grease Monkey

paulybronco

Far Canal

Ken in Cairns

paulybronco

Far Canal

Far Canal

paulybronco

Ken in Cairns