Tire balancers use rotational movement applied to a tire to determine imbalances in the wheel. Old or antique balancers, called bubble balancers, use air bubbles to indicate where an imbalance is on a wheel. The use of those requires a lot of guesswork. Modern spin balancers use onboard computers and a spinning axle attached to highly sensitive equipment to calculate where and how much weight needs to be applied to a rim to balance the tire. Most balancers operate in the same manner.
Secure the tire to the machine using the wedge-shaped metal donuts pressed into the hole of the rim and the spin-on bolt. The rim should sit flush with the cup attached to the bar coming out of the side of the machine.
Input the wheel size information. The computer needs to know the rim diameter, rim size and the distance from the machine. The rim size is printed on the tire. The rim diameter is determined using the pincer-like tool. Place the ends of the tool onto the lip of the rim and the viewing window at the joint of the two arms will state the size. The machine has an arm that comes out of the side of the balancer that touches the rim. The measurement of the distance from the machine is printed on the arm.
Select dynamic balance by pressing the "Mode Selection" button until the "Dynamic" light is highlighted.
Lower the hood and allow the tire to spin until the machine stops the spinning.
Raise the hood and spin the tire until the display shows the tire as being top-dead-center. Place the indicated weight onto the rim and tap the weight into place on the lip of the rip using the hammer. Do this for both sides of the rim.
Spin the wheel again by lowering the hood. Adjust the weights as necessary until the readout shows zero.
