Technical BEWARE!!! So-Cal Speed Shop 9" housings

For you Southern Califoria guys I would recommend Speedway Engineering in Sylmar Ca. They build some of the finest 9" Ford housings for circle track including NASCAR and are great to work with especially if you bend one. I don't think you ever find one with poor weld penetration. They are not all floaters either and they can help with brakes, mounts, seals, bearings, etc.

 

Thanks for that, I'd hate to see anybody get hurt as a result of this (again, not knowing how many units are affected).

 

Not just California guys, they ship all over. I've had two in dirt cars, "impact tested" and have been happy with them. Good Luck

 

I'm going to crawl under my Jeep and look closely at the Currie 9" housing now. I was lucky (I think) to find it - some guy had it built for a race car and never returned to the shop to pick it up, so they unloaded it. For once I was in the right place at the right time. Still, I'm going to have a look...

 

Having read all the posts I doubt if I will buy from SoCal.

 

Ken and Frank Jr are great guys to work with and build a quality product. We run their SuperMax quickchange in a Bonneville car and have had zero problems. In addition to 9" rear ends, they will also build you a SuperMax quickchange center section with early Ford bell axle housings and modern big bearing ends.

vic

 

Jesus. I literally just painted my currie 9" housing this weekend. Ive had it since new from socal bought a handful of years ago. Any idea how we can check this since its been painted?

 

You need a talk with my son...he is good at thinking. He would say: how many were built and sold, versus how many ended up with a crack? And he would then say run it, and that it would be hard to miss a drop of 80/90w on the driveway or garage floor if a crack ever did start. (car guys look at their cars)

never say never, but the odds of a sudden total failure of the tube completely breaking off, would be near impossible in normal driving. The OP "saw" something originally, to cause him to look deeper and find the crack starting. (car guys look at their cars)
.

 

If I was going to run a 9", I'd use a Coleman.
And just because of this thread, I'll never buy anything from SoCal.

 

This housing was not a Currie to the best of my knowledge. Currie usually has a tag welded to the housing.

 

My wife came home from work and said she smelled gear oil in the garage. I checked, found the puddle, and those pics were taken at that time. I checked at work the next day and there was no spot where the car sat. This happened on over a 7.8 mile distance on surface streets. This is a weld with very little penetration. Saying a complete failure would be impossible is ludicrous. This is a complete failure, but it could have been much worse. It is pure happenstance that this occurred when and where it did.

 

Please don't twist my words. I did not say impossible, I said "near impossible". And back to why I made my post to Helmuth; what the hell should he do? Strip the rear down to have the tubes cut and rewelded? ...or run the thing?

The problem with people farming out so many things these days, compared to 50 years ago with guys reusing OEM junkyard pieces, you are greatly increasing the chance of ending up with some inferior parts at some point....offshore or USA

Reading the hamb for a decade, the list of crap parts warnings are far too common; cast axles breaking, bolt on steering arms getting loose/stripping out, M2 fabbed lower arms breaking in half, control arm pivots breaking off, underspec'd ball joints dropping out, etc etc.
.

 

Morst importantly people need to quit dragging Currie through this mud - pretty sure M_S has made it clear this was NOT a Currie housing.
That is part of the problem with the internet - folks read and see part of a post, mix up information and then blast people or companies based on a lack of facts and Hearsay.

 

I don't see any defective, inferior parts. I see a shit assed weld job.

 

I agree even if it was a Currie how many failures have we seen. UH one.

The point of the thread should be who did not make it right after selling it not who built it originally.

This rear could be a Monday or Friday job, on Monday the guy on the assembly line is hung over and on Friday his mind is on the party he is going to so that he can do the same thing next Monday.

That said this is one out of gawd knows how many and it was purchased from SoCal not directly from the manufacturer. The seller is responsible for every product that goes out the door. The manufacturer is responsible to the vendor.

 

Does your housing not have the currie tag welded on? Mine has it on the passenger side axle tube.

Yeah I agree. Chances are slim. Thanks for the reassurance.

 

I have tried to make that very clear, this housing does NOT have a Currie tag on it. When I picked this housing up in Pomona, I was told they were no longer supplied by Currie and were using another supplier. Since this happened, So-Cal has said there are two possible suppliers of the housing, neither of those being Currie.

 

I'm worried ,I'm going to have to check the housing on my Dana 60, who am I kidding ,you can't break a Dana 60.

 

Unless you got a helluva heavy ride, and some serious power, that's a heavy ass rear for a street driven traditional, read as lightweight, hot rod.
Lotta unsprung weight to degrade both ride and handling.
My "A"roadster, has a 9"w/locker and I've been thinking of being on the lookout for a drum brake 8.8" Explorer Power Trax rear for it, just to hide under the workbench for future consideration.

 

An earlier poster mentioned a supplier that I won't call out but some years back a friend who owns a major hot rod shop was getting them by the pallet without any mounts and had some with seperated welds like the one that M_ S has. Didn't have any problems until they straightened them after welding on the various mounts.
This housing design is probably the weakest of all of the ones Ford produced, so they will distort quite a bit after welding, requiring them to be straightened in a press and that particular location is the most vulnerable depending on how it was supported.
These are man made parts, stuff happens, what is a shame is when the involved party(s),
won't make it right for the end consumer, not that M_S is trying to smear anyone.

 

It totally blows my mind that socal would even waste there time arguing this. A simple apology and a new rearend or money return problem solved. Thank the Lord your family didn't get harmed.

 

If I sold you that, you would have gotten an an apology, a free replacement housing, shipping included, and a nice gift certificate.

 

Funny I just got off the phone with a home improvement store. I had ordered a cordless drill and it showed that it had been delivered to me already. I told the lady that I didn't see it yet, she just arranged to have another one shipped no questions asked.

That's good business.

You have to take good care of your clients, just one bad report can have a huge ripple effect.

 

I just wish I had a wife that knew what Gear Oil smells like..Lucky man you are!

 

Very lucky, for more than just that.

 

Someone who is manufacturing these should have a jig for building them to avoid distortion. If welded properly, the weld should be stronger than the surrounding metal. A wire feed weld can look pretty while being very weak if it's done cold.

I was taught to heat the entire housing to 200 degrees before welding. And keep some heat on it while welding. It minimizes the warping and helps prevent a cold weld. I was taught by a local guy who had a jig built on a 12 inch H beam. There was a plate that bolted to the center section. The tubes were held in place by 2 U bolts on each side and he had a large shaft that went all the way through to line the end bearings with the carrier bearings. I wonder where that jig went.

 

True that. I am cleaning up two messes, as we speak, that I bear no responsibility for, but were blamed on me just the same. I am not having my name and reputation sullied in this manner.

 

As in my earlier post, many shops will buy housings in various "standard" dimensions and add mounts per app. These usually have ends installed and nothing else, and yes most well equipped shops will have the jig you mentioned. Most times it's the mount welding that causes the distortion. I have seen them need little to no straightening one day and the next day one with a different style mount in a different location will require a heavy hand.
Not knowing the process used on the OP's housing, it's hard to say at what point the weld failed. Could have been one of those happy hour housings, the kind where the weldor has realized it's ten minutes to quitting time and he's two beers behind and rushed it through.

 

Yes, I agree the lousy weld is the problem.
The BIGGER problem is the fact that SoCal refuses to acknowledge any responsibility to the buyer.
Who the Hell at SoCal made such an erroneous decision ?
That is the thinking of a company who simply does not give a crap for the buyer, "their" customer.

 

From speaking with them, their view is that it's a warranty issue and the part is out of warranty. It's an issue of negligence, not intentional, but still negligence.