Wheel shim apparatus and method

A method of correcting the runout of a bare wheel comprising:

• mounting the bare wheel on a spindle of a balancer and measuring the rim run-out, said bare wheel having a wheel rim with an external lip adjacent an interior bead seat;
• determining a desired change in wheel rim run-out;
• and
• adding a shim to the bead seat of the wheel rim, the shim being selected to correspond to desired change in wheel rim run-out.

A method of correcting the runout of a bare wheel comprising:

• mounting the bare wheel on a spindle of a balancer and measuring the rim run-out, said bare wheel having a wheel rim with a bead seat;
• determining a desired change in wheel rim run-out;
• and
• adding a shim to the bead seat of the wheel rim, the shim being selected to correspond to the desired change in wheel rim run-out;
• said shim adding step further comprising the step of providing said wheel shim for the wheel rim, said provided wheel shim being elongate and having a width sized to fit in the bead seat of the wheel rim, the thickness of the wheel shim being substantially less than the width of the wheel shim, and the length of the wheel shim being substantially greater than the width of the wheel shim, the wheel shim having a bottom surface adapted to be disposed in the bead seat and having a top surface adapted to be in contact with the bead of a tire to be mounted on the wheel rim.

A method of correcting a tire assembly force variation of a tire/wheel assembly consisting of a wheel and a tire, said method comprising:

• measuring the rim run-out of the wheel, the wheel having a wheel rim with an external lip adjacent a bead seat;
• determining the tire assembly force variation;
• determining a desired change in wheel rim run-out to minimize the tire assembly force variation;
• and
• adding a shim to the bead seat of the wheel rim, the shim being selected to correspond to the desired change in wheel rim run-out.

A method of correcting a tire assembly force variation of a tire/wheel assembly consisting of a wheel and a tire, said method comprising:

• measuring the rim run-out of the wheel, the wheel having a wheel rim with a bead seat;
• determining the tire assembly force variation;
• determining a desired change in wheel rim run-out to minimize the tire assembly force variation;
• and
• adding a shim to the bead seat of the wheel rim, the shim being selected to correspond to the desired change in wheel rim run-out;
• said shim adding step further comprising the step of providing said wheel shim for the wheel rim, said provided wheel shim being elongate and having a width sized to fit in the bead seat of the wheel rim, the thickness of the wheel shim being substantially less than the width of the wheel shim, and the length of the wheel shim being substantially greater than the width of the wheel shim, the wheel shim having a bottom surface adapted to be disposed in the bead seat and having a top surface adapted to be in contact with the bead of a tire to be mounted on the wheel rim.