A tire uniformity machine, comprising: an apparatus for receiving and rotating a tire, said apparatus including opposed upper and lower spindle and chuck assemblies (32, 34) for receiving, inflating and rotating the tire; a load wheel applied to the rotating tire for obtaining tire uniformity test results by measurement of the forces exerted by the tire on the load wheel during rotational movement detected by at least one load cell associated with said load wheel; and a spindle alignment assembly associated with said opposed spindle and chuck assemblies (32, 34) to angularly align said spindles with one another each time a control or production tire is received; characterized in that: said load wheel comprises a load wheel encoder configured to monitor the rotational or angular position of the load wheel, wherein; said upper spindle and chuck assembly has an upper spindle encoder to monitor the rotational position of the tire during rotation, and wherein: a computer is adapted to: receive characterizing signals from said load wheel encoder and load cell for a control tire of a known spring-rate value to generate a load wheel characterization waveform; receive characterizing signals from the upper spindle encoder and load cell for a control tire of known spring-rate to generate a spindle characterization waveform; normalize said spindle and load wheel characterization waveforms to the spring-rate of each subsequently tested tire; and subtract said normalized spindle characterization waveform from tire uniformity waveforms of subsequent production tires being tested, wherein said load wheel characterization waveform was previously subtracted from said spindle characterization waveform. an apparatus for receiving and rotating a tire, said apparatus including opposed upper and lower spindle and chuck assemblies (32, 34) for receiving, inflating and rotating the tire; a load wheel applied to the rotating tire for obtaining tire uniformity test results by measurement of the forces exerted by the tire on the load wheel during rotational movement detected by at least one load cell associated with said load wheel; and a spindle alignment assembly associated with said opposed spindle and chuck assemblies (32, 34) to angularly align said spindles with one another each time a control or production tire is received; said load wheel comprises a load wheel encoder configured to monitor the rotational or angular position of the load wheel, wherein; said upper spindle and chuck assembly has an upper spindle encoder to monitor the rotational position of the tire during rotation, and wherein: a computer is adapted to: receive characterizing signals from said load wheel encoder and load cell for a control tire of a known spring-rate value to generate a load wheel characterization waveform; receive characterizing signals from the upper spindle encoder and load cell for a control tire of known spring-rate to generate a spindle characterization waveform; normalize said spindle and load wheel characterization waveforms to the spring-rate of each subsequently tested tire; and subtract said normalized spindle characterization waveform from tire uniformity waveforms of subsequent production tires being tested, wherein said load wheel characterization waveform was previously subtracted from said spindle characterization waveform. receive characterizing signals from said load wheel encoder and load cell for a control tire of a known spring-rate value to generate a load wheel characterization waveform; receive characterizing signals from the upper spindle encoder and load cell for a control tire of known spring-rate to generate a spindle characterization waveform; normalize said spindle and load wheel characterization waveforms to the spring-rate of each subsequently tested tire; and subtract said normalized spindle characterization waveform from tire uniformity waveforms of subsequent production tires being tested, wherein said load wheel characterization waveform was previously subtracted from said spindle characterization waveform.