Checking wheels before purchase

[teardrop]

I hope to be picking up some 7/8x16 fuchs wheels in a few weeks. The wheels have been refinished and are without tyres.

What and how should I check them before I accept them.

Obviously I'll check for correct part numbers, the fuchs fox and no cracking but how can I tell if they are otherwise all right?

Any simple techniques for checking they are true and not out of round?

What would you do if you were picking up a set from a private seller and had no facilities other than a simple toolset to check them with?

Cheers

Andy

[ttweed]

I would drive my Porsche over, jack it up, remove a front wheel, mount each rim on the hub and spin them, eyeballing them for wobbles in any axis.

You can see any gross out of round condition easily this way. A dial micrometer to measure runout would be ideal, but it's likely that if you can't see any obvious wobbles, the rim will balance up fine when the tires are mounted.

[chrisp]

I went through this same thought. I ended up making a fixture that I could hold in my hands and spin them to see if they have any wobble.

If you had a caliper and could measure bead seat to bead set across the width of the rim that would tell you if the width is consistent (i.e. no dents or bending of the rim wall). To check the alignment of the hub face and it's squareness to the bead seats is tough. If you had a block of metal (with square faces) that was as long as the backspacing for a specific wheel I guess you could lay that on the hub face and then lay a straight edge across the top and check the gap between the rim and the straight edge. A tool using this same logic is used to check bicycle wheel dish.

I agree if you have the chance, use you car and mount them to see. A little dirty and time involving but that's probably the best way to do it on site and free of major tools.