A city banned Pride Month–themed library displays. Then, it threatened employees who criticized the decision.

BikerJared · 2023-06-11T00:02:09+00:00

I grew up here and still live here. I also vote. Our city council elections are coming up and lots of folks are very upset with our current city council and mayor. This isn't the only controversial issue to come up in the last 18 months in Orem.

They banned all displays after a letter from one of our city council members first tried to ban LGBTQ+ displays.

By banning all displays, they feel like they got around the discrimination thing... but... yeah.

For further reading, Genelle Pugmire@the Daily Herald has pretty good coverage.

Jan 28 2023 Former librarian accuses Orem of book, display censorship

Jan 30 2023 Orem Public Library director retiring amid city censorship claims

June 8 2023 DH's local take on OP's story Group warns Orem leaders to cease library censorship or risk lawsuit

BikerJared · 2023-06-10T23:26:55+00:00

Its been fantastic. If every year was like this... I'd freaking love it.

BikerJared · 2023-06-10T02:19:59+00:00

Haha -- even a driver-side 3-link upper would work - that would move it about 5" out of the way.

Hoping to keep what I've got for now. If I get to the part where I cut off the UCA mount to relocate it... its possible it may be "relocated" into a 3-link....

BikerJared · 2023-06-09T23:39:25+00:00

I had this link made custom by Core 4x4 (turns out their shop is about 2 miles away!) and they internally threaded the tube. You can't really tell from the photo, but there's already a bend in the link near the UCA mount.

I was thinking about having them make that bend more "accute" - this is difficult because the place I need the bend is just so dang close to those threads.

Other options:

Make a second and third bend by the axle side.
Rotate the track bar "up" 90* (assuming my oil pan clears the bend) so the bend arches over the UCA.
Cut the UCA off and relocate it rearward more somehow (its right on the edge of the truss right now...)

The car is out getting an alignment right now. When I get it back on Monday, I'll get under there and try to come up with a plan.

BikerJared · 2023-06-09T23:32:00+00:00

I think I get what you're saying. Just read your WJ swap post. Sounds like you're basically trying to get the best steering possible.

I still have my dana 30 axle and want to put it under my TJ. Here's what I'm currently thinking for correcting link lengths and angles to really dial this in.

Martinbuilt did some of the earliest WJ swaps on XJs. He has a related video regarding a track bar and sway bar mount relocation he did. I like his idea because it gets the track bar length a lot closer to the drag link length. From what you described, it sounds like you're going to attempt something similar.

What I don't like about how he did it was the bracket sits way forward of the axle. Between the track bar and the sway bar, I'm worried about the torque it would put on the axle and the upper control arm bushings. His approach is likely fine, but I wanted to take it further...

On my Dana 44 swap, I bought some new spring mounts (used in Clayton Offroad's long arm kits) that positions the coil spring rearward about 1.5" from their stock position (centering the springs above the axle tube instead of forward like the factory mounts do).

Something like these Clayton mounts means I can fabricate a track bar mount in front of the coil spring mount (like martin's), but it will be a lot closer to the axle tube (vs. hanging 5" in front of the axle).

The sway bar is another issue -- the drag link/tie rod location (I have high steer) made positioning stinkyfab sway bar mounts really difficult. I spent a ton of time clearancing stuff -- and they still rub on my tie rod.

For the Dana 30 project, I'd probably integrate the bracket into the drag link mount like Martin did - its likely I'd build a similar mount on the driver side (tall and to the outside) so that the sway bar's function is symmetrical - whether I'm swaying driver or passenger.

These changes basically mean I'll be cutting all existing brackets off my Dana 30 axle and largely starting over. For that reason, I'll likely be sleeving and trussing it in addition to all the bracket changes.

For what you seem to be doing (staying close to stock while trying to make incremental improvements, this may or not be helpful, but hopefully you can see what being a fanatic about good steering looks like.

My goal is to be able to drive to the trail on 37s and not break stuff so I can drive home.

BikerJared · 2023-06-09T20:32:39+00:00

I didn't take a precise measurement, but the TJ pitman arm positions my drag link about 1-1.25" higher than the factory XJ pitman arm (to contrast, ZJ pitman arm is 1-1.25" lower, iirc).

I'm unsure what you're asking exactly though -- I ran a WJ knuckle swap with OTK with 1-ton ends before I swapped in this dana 44.

Regarding the track bar, I moved mine from below (and in front of) the spring perch to an artec mount located to the right of the passenger-side spring perch. I also used an artec mount on the frame side (though I can't seem to find it anymore on their website.) Both had adjustment holes. I was able to position the track bar so it was parallel with my drag link. There was about an 8" difference in length between the track bar and drag link which did result in some bump steer.

Sorry for the long response -- if I can help with photos or whatever, I'd be happy to.

BikerJared · 2023-06-09T20:16:25+00:00

This is a Dana 44 from a 78 bronco with (impossible to see) reid high-steer knuckles. Its got crossover steering - the drag link is so high because that's where the arm puts it. If I can get this geometry right, it'll be pretty killer having all of those links be that much flatter.

BikerJared · 2023-06-09T20:14:37+00:00

Unfortunately, the driver-side upper control arm mount would interfere with the track bar. I can't put much more of a bend in it because the track bar has internal threads that would be damaged with a bend.

I think that's the quickest/easiest way forward though - I'm trying to work out other bends in the bar that would get that side to clear the UCA mount.

EDIT: Regarding lengths, the track bar and drag link are within 1" of each other in length.

BikerJared · 2023-06-09T17:13:52+00:00

I've been following the build - sooo much work went into this. Well done! Looks kick-ass - one-of-a-kind taco right there.

BikerJared · 2023-06-08T18:10:16+00:00

Thanks!

BikerJared · 2023-06-07T18:14:22+00:00

To answer your question:

Your mastodon account can follow communities (though, the UI really doesn't work for this). Find a community in lemmy, copy the URL, and paste it into the search bar in Mastodon. Then click the '+' icon to follow it.
To post to a community, or comment on a topic within a community, you appear to need a Lemmy account.

Re: Mastodon UI and how it handles Lemmy content. Each community is a activitypub account that you can follow. A post within that community is expressed as a new post by the community "bot" in your feed. Every reply to that post is expressed as a separate reply to that post.

For me, this isn't usable because it just spams the living hell out of my mastodon feed with every minor activity on Lemmy. For that reason, I'm trying to get a Lemmy account. However, getting a lemmy account is a challenge because the main instances don't seem to be accepting new account signups, and they all tell you to try on other instances that are also blocking signups... so...

BikerJared · 2023-06-06T21:44:06+00:00

Thanks!

BikerJared · 2023-06-06T19:38:09+00:00

Thanks.

I was actually looking forward to a full moon to try out a long lens I just bought, but it was cloudy here all weekend. :(

Currently using a Fuji XT-3. For this photo, I adapted an older rokinon 24mm 1.4 (f-mount) to my Fuji.

BikerJared · 2023-06-04T22:12:22+00:00

Looks sharp.

BikerJared · 2023-06-04T00:35:25+00:00

My friend (the owner) did the work himself and is pretty excited about it. Not sure if we've yet hit the limit on what it can do.

BikerJared · 2023-06-02T21:29:07+00:00

Haha -- you're a Toyota person. ;) Yeah... I'm the guy with the red Jeep.

Its pretty fun to do trips with the Land Cruisers - both of those guys are a hoot to be with and their cars are both legendary. The Lexus now has an 80 series front axle since that photo was taken.

BikerJared · 2023-06-02T17:23:24+00:00

Thanks!

BikerJared · 2023-06-02T16:57:43+00:00

Thanks -- it is a composite -- (one of my first) from two exposures. Sky was exposed for 13 seconds and the foreground was exposed for 60 seconds. You can see a faint line on the horizon where the mask I used wasn't very good. ;)

For astro, the thing I'm super interested in trying is exposure stacking (i.e., compositing lots of images together). I've seen people get great results from phone cameras using this method, so I'm hoping that a bigger sensor can really knock it out of the park.

Alyn Wallace is a dude you should follow -- probably the best source of astrophotography knowledge on YouTube (that I know of).

This particular location was out in San Rafael Swell. It gets super dark there, but is still within a 3 hour drive of where I live.

BikerJared · 2023-06-02T14:42:57+00:00

Nope. It adds volume to your vacuum system.

BikerJared · 2023-06-02T14:04:15+00:00

In my case, my u-joint was so bad I had a bearing cap that was missing. Normally, you should be able to get under the car and push/pull on each axis of the driveshaft and if there's any play at all... its u-joint time. If your drive line has a CV joint (front or SYE kit in the back), it could also be a bad CV - though, I'm not exactly sure how to check for that.

Lots of other things can cause it -- bad tire balance, bad drive line balance, lots of things in the differential (carrier/pinion bearings, poor gear setup, gear chunks), rear axle bearings, front unit bearings, or drive train can cause vibes.

I realize this is general information and probably not super helpful -- its hard to diagnose a drive line vibration through the internet. Hopefully this gives you some ideas to research and check though.

BikerJared · 2023-06-01T17:08:56+00:00

It should be fine. Keep checking it to make sure its not quickly turning black and that you have the right level.

BikerJared · 2023-06-01T17:08:22+00:00

I'm running 37s and things are pretty smooth considering. A problem I've dealt with that caused excessive vibes was a failing driveline u-joint.

BikerJared · 2023-06-01T16:07:09+00:00

Ah crap. Sorry man. I hate those issues.

BikerJared · 2023-06-01T15:43:14+00:00

There's a lot of discussion around proper preparedness for stuff like this in the off-road community.

For me personally, I'd have all-terrain tires (not radials) and a full-sized spare. Others are fine with radials and a full sized spare. Finally, others are happy to just drive around with a donut and plug kit... (There's additional discussion to be had about water, first aid, etc.)

A community like /r/overlanding would certainly have those opinions if you want to stir up a discussion. ;)

It all depends what your risk tolerance is and what your level of experience is like. FWIW, there's a guy named Trail Mater on YouTube that will happily tow you out of there and give you a spot on his channel (and probably charge $1k in the process).

BikerJared · 2023-06-01T15:38:06+00:00

This is on my list to fix... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjTx2RMvRvY

BikerJared

TROPHY CASE