rear end bearing problem with Shell Valley

[Dwight]

Saturday Mike and I jumped into his Shell Valley Coupe and drove to Athens, 40 miles away, to a car show. We got 4 miles from the show and a rear wheel bearing went out. We called a tow truck and got the Coupe back to my shop. Mike removed the axles and found the right rear bearing destroyed. Today (Monday) Eddie (our local Ford mechanic ) dropped by and check out the rear end. This is his email to me.

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Dwight:
Just completed checking out my Shell Valley nine inch rear end with the destroyed driver side rear wheel bearing. Eddie, our very competent Ford mechanic was witness to the problem. Using a framing square and short accurate six inch ruler we were able to measure the amount of discrepancy in the welded flange ends. The drivers side flange, with the framing square tight up against it (parallel) and the 90 degree leg of the ruler running parallel to the nine inch tube, is angles out 3/16 of an inch in 12 inches. In other words the flange has been welded on so crooked and angled that from the end of the tube back twelve inches instead of being dead on it is 3/16 of an inch off of parallel. This is what caused my rear bearing to burn up before I have had 900 miles on this coupe. The passenger side is off 1/8 of an inch in twelve inches.
This is another example of the incompetence of the Shell Valley people. What if this bearing had burned up at speed?
Mike

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I emailed the story about our Saturday trip to all the Cobra guys in our area and received this email from Jeff


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FYI
I have a Shell Valley rear end and when I was putting the piece of shxt together found out that the bearing races are .060 to .075 out of round. Reasoning: Whoever welded the races on, shorten the housing, applied way to much heat. My cobra will not roll, the right rear tire just drags because the bearing is being squeezed plus the offset is off by .020 in the wrong direction. So now I have to mill .030 off the out side brake pad. So I call the F'er's at Shell Valley and Dana told me that I am out of the 30 day purchase window ( who in the hell builds a car in 30 days ) and that they would not help me. Funny thing is after I paid CASH,,, it took S/V almost four months to deliver the frame and 9" rear end. I am so disappointed these guys remind me of CMC out of Miami FL. years ago. This is not right.
jg

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The problems Mike has had with this Shell Valley Coupe kit would take a month to list.

Has anyone had the same problem with the Shell Valley rear end? If you have a Shell Valley nine inch rear end in your car I would check it. This problem could have wrecked us if we had been driving 60-70 mph on the highway. Luckily we were doing 40 mph and got stopped quickly.

Dwight