[Houdini]

I went to the swap meet as planned this weekend, but only saw one 19 inch wheel. It looked very nice, all cleaned up and sand blasted etc. No cracks that I could see. Some spokes were bent though. I used the jig I made to check run out between the hub and rim and found it was too out of align for my taste, over an 1/8 inch. I decided to pass on it, not sure if I could straighten it out enough or not, plus the price was way too high based on the run out and bent spokes. I'll keep looking.

But I promised to post what I came up with to check the run out. Of course, this is not perfect and it would depend on how clean, smooth, the hub and rim are, plus any bends or damage to the rim edge.

The pictures below are with one of my bad, cracked wheels, and it does have some bent rim edges, but its for example purposes only. The square steel tubing is 2 x 2. The holes were already in this piece that I had and the one 3/8 hole that I used as an "axle" was already drilled. I cut a 3/4 piece of wood and turned it on my lathe to fit the hub. The bolt is loose to provide an axle, so its not tightened down, just dropped in. It seems to keep the setup pretty accurate as I turn it around the entire rim, looking to see where the high and low spots are and how much difference there is between them. I try and put my dial gauge in the middle of the bead area of the rim, as that is where the tire will press against and show how the tire will seat and wobble or not wobble on the road. I suppose you could measure other areas too. It's simple and accurate enough to see if there is major runout, without mounting the wheel to the car. Hope this might help someone else.