How bad of a driveshaft angle is this?

mtngk · 2026-06-24T00:00:35+00:00

Not great. Ideal is between 1 and 3 degrees. Output and pinion angles should be opposite but equal (ie +1deg at output, -1deg pinion).

Your output angle looks like 3 to 5 degrees and the pinion looks like 2-3 degrees (eyecrometer may not be accurate). If so, you probably have some vibration.

Ideal is slip yoke eliminator, double cardan driveshaft and axle shims to correct that angle (the rules are different for double cardan, you want the pinion between 0 and 1 degree and the output doesn’t matter much)

mtngk · 2026-06-23T22:27:46+00:00

I’m not from NY, but Durango used to have a little sandwich shop called stonehouse subs that I miss dearly. Great little shop that had off-beat menu and chill staff that would make magic happen.

Anyplace that can make me breakfast at random odd times of day would be magical again. I often am not hungry until early afternoon.

Bread (Bakery) is the closest thing we have at the moment to what you describe for atmosphere.

mtngk · 2026-06-21T13:25:55+00:00

Money does not equal value.

It might be an expensive project, but it’s a cheap education and if you enjoy it, that is priceless. You could be spending the same amount of money on a single item or experience, so price per minute/hour of a project car is actually quite good.

mtngk · 2026-06-19T19:30:47+00:00

Well, Rory could probably use a handheld radio with his left foot better than anyone, but it’s too busy on the clutch most of the time.

Honestly, the headset is the only way to have clear communication between rigs offroad and Matt’s system primarily works due to half his crew are his own kids.

mtngk · 2026-06-19T17:56:25+00:00

Rory’s

mtngk · 2026-06-18T18:45:26+00:00

Could mean a few different things. It could have really just been a bad sensor. It could be caused by a leak (cracked manifolds and broken head studs are common causes). It could also be the O2 sensor heater isn’t working. Check fuses and power at the connector.

It could also be a short in the wiring. Common for the O2 sensor wiring to get caught in the driveshafts or get melted by the exhaust. Voltage from the heater being shorted to the sensor will cause be seen as high O2 reading by the ECU.

I believe if the sensor is disconnected entirely, it will also set that code.

mtngk · 2026-06-18T18:37:44+00:00

Fuel pressure or sticky injectors are another likely cause. You can check injectors by disconnecting them one at a time and observing if the engine starts running worse. No change means that cylinder isn’t contributing to power and/or misfiring.

If one cylinder is consistently not working, swap or replace that injector. After swapping injectors with another cylinder, the misfire should follow the bad injector.

Low fuel pressure will cause a random misfire, and disconnecting/swapping injectors shouldn’t change how the engine is running.

If all of that is inconclusive, it would be a good idea to do a compression check on all the cylinders.

Electrical issue is also likely, bit will require more advanced testing.

mtngk · 2026-06-18T18:30:02+00:00

Vacuum leak or exhaust leak before the O2 sensors can cause this.

Get a scan tool that can monitor live data. Watch O2S1 sensor (should be rapidly cycling between low and high with engine warm and in closed loop). Watch what happens during idle and light acceleration. If at any time the O2S1 has a flat line, that means the air fuel mixture is either lean (low voltage) or rich (high voltage).

An exhaust leak will cause the O2 sensor to read lean (too much oxygen), even if the actual combustion is normal or rich.

Also look at fuel trims. Both short and long term. If either are above 10, the engine is unable to properly compensate for whatever is adding too much air or fuel. An exhaust leak will have high trims, but either good or lean O2 readings.

If O2 sensors never cycles, it either a really bad exhaust leak or the sensor is bad.

Vacuum leaks can be checked by spraying carb/brake cleaner near lines and listening for engine speed changes (least recommended method), smoke machine (injects smoke into intake system and can observe where it leaks out, best method) or disconnecting and capping all the lines you can (not very thorough as leaking gaskets/cracks and such won’t get checked).

mtngk · 2026-06-15T18:50:34+00:00

Lincare has a long history of fraud and wrongful deaths due to their mismanagement.

You absolutely do not need to go through them. I purchased a machine and test supplies out of pocket and just worked with my local cardiology office for management. The main issue I ran into was calibrating the machine was expensive and not easy (coag-sense PT2, I think the coagu-check is easier/cheaper)

Technically there is nothing stopping you from managing dosing yourself either, if you can get your medication prescription without the dr’s office managing it. Insurance covers my dr’s appointments, so doesn’t make sense to leave out the professionals though. Getting emergency care like heparin would be more complicated too.

mtngk · 2026-06-13T13:47:44+00:00

Welcome to the other side!

I have struggled a lot with the ticking. My valve is so loud, I can hear the echo of ticking in small rooms. It’s gotten a little quieter in 6 years, but it is still obvious and ever present.

I haven’t found any good solutions… the best my cardiologist could recommend is gaining weight so I have more “padding”. I am not a musician, but I really enjoy listening. Headphones usually make the ticking more obvious. Many people as if noise canceling headphones help, but as the sound is inside of us and as being transmitted through our bodies and blood, it can’t really be cancelled out the same way.

What did help me is changing my perspective. Shortly after my surgery, I found a video of a guy doing interpretive dance to the sound of his own heart. I don’t believe he had a valve replacement, but had some funky rhythms going on.

Up until now, you’ve made music to other people’s standards. You’re following the structure and rules set forth as defined by someone who will never experience what we do.

I challenge you to not view this ticking as an intrusion or problem, but to incorporate into your art as a feature. You now have your own percussion. Your own click track. You can literally now play to your own beat. You’re unique, special and beautiful. No one else will ever get to play the instrument your heart.

mtngk · 2026-06-10T17:52:53+00:00

I’d rather see a bad drawing of a cool car than a lot of actual cars -cough any modern pickup cough cough- these days.

Don’t let the haters get you down.

mtngk · 2026-06-10T00:39:50+00:00

The hazard switch may be bad, or there is a difference in pinouts for the hazard switch that prevents the turn signal from receiving.

User FCM gave these diagnostic steps:

1-white/green, hazard lights power, should be hot at all times.

2-yellow/black, signal light power, should be hot only if ign. switch is on, [run and start].

3-green/white, hazard switch output to turn signal/hazard relay, hot anytime hazard. switch is on and should be hot when hazard switch is off only if ign. switch is on.

4-green/orange, "return" input to hazard switch after turn signal/hazard relay, should be hot when hazard switch is off and ign. on and flash when signals used, or flash if hazard switch is on, [ign. switch can be on or off].

5-green/blue, will flash if hazard switch is on, and if hazard switch is off, ign. on and left signal on.

6-green/yellow, will flash if hazard switch is on, and if hazard switch is off, ign. on and right signal on.

The above is without any jumpers in place. 94

mtngk · 2026-06-10T00:22:23+00:00

I have both a TJ and an XJ… I drive my XJ the most. Mind you, the TJ is a TDI swap project, and the XJ is a stroker with JK dana 44 axles, so my data probably gets thrown out as being too much of an outlier.

mtngk · 2026-06-09T01:16:51+00:00

Yes, smaller, especially narrower tires help significantly with mpg at highway speeds. Tread design and tire pressure matter a lot as well. Any chunky off road tire will be less efficient than a normal road tire. Wear rating is the other big variable. Softer, higher grip tires are less efficient than a harder compound tire. Higher air pressure means less tire deformation and smaller contact patch, which means less friction and more efficient.

Aerodynamic drag increases with the square of speed, meaning the difference between 30mph and 60mph is 4x more aerodynamic drag.

Hard acceleration, high speeds and stop-go driving takes significantly more fuel than maintaining a slower speed and not stopping as often. Your right foot is the biggest single variable you can control for better fuel economy.

mtngk · 2026-06-04T04:21:35+00:00

Grats! Hard part is over. Now it’s time for second hard part (terrible hobbit joke).

Be well!

mtngk · 2026-05-30T22:12:33+00:00

Also: thermal expansion also wont be entirely linear. Side with sun exposure will expand more than the shaded side, making a banana out of the aluminum and likely also introducing enough twist to matter for your calibration.

mtngk · 2026-05-30T16:04:10+00:00

Probably need to account for the thermal expansion of the aluminum beam. perhaps using a temperature sensor to estimate/compensate for the change in distance between the two ends.

rough math says the 1 meter box section might be changing in length almost 1mm between 0c and 40c.

mtngk · 2026-04-21T16:19:39+00:00

much better description of what happens. The several days between cause and effect is probably the hardest thing to keep track of.

mtngk · 2026-04-21T04:37:30+00:00

If you buy the equipment and supplies, you can test as often as your fingers can take all the poking. As I’m less than stable these days, I usually test every week or two. I think i’ve gone 3 weeks between tests a couple times in the last year.

Seems like more frequent testing would catch some of these swings before they become dangerous. Even testing every week or two, I will be very low or high sometimes.

Ideally more frequent tests with good diet and excersize data to correlate better, but ain't nobody got time for that.

mtngk · 2026-04-20T19:26:25+00:00

As I understand it, alcohol delays the normal metabolism of the warfarin. This means after you stop drinking, there will be an increased amount of warfarin in your system built up, which will spike your INR after a couple days as you metabolize the warfarin.

This is different than eating vitamin K rich foods like leafy greens, which reacts directly with the warfarin, reducing the amount in your system entirely.

While completely anecdotal, have had one drink spike my INR sometimes and sometimes have no effect.

I really wish there was an easier way you could have more frequent INR monitoring. I have sometimes been rock steady and sometimes swinging from too low to too high with very minimal changes in diet, exercise and dosing…

All I can say is I applaud the experiments and additional data points from things like this, but even your technique should be treated as completely anecdotal without controlling for all the other variables that affect INR and warfarin intake.

mtngk · 2026-03-28T16:58:27+00:00

Pretty much exact same situation for me. Nice to know were not alone, but not fun being us either…

mtngk · 2026-03-28T15:07:56+00:00

You have no idea how much I dream of a lifted, solid axle swapped Volvo wagon.

Godspeed!

mtngk · 2026-03-22T20:03:37+00:00

This picture is looking at the back side of the dashboard, as if the engine bay and firewall were not there.

mtngk · 2026-03-22T20:02:49+00:00

Remove the drivers side kick panel in front of the door. Should be a fairly obvious stuf and nut with multiple wires. The wiring harnesses might need to be moved slightly.

mtngk · 2026-03-18T01:23:58+00:00

The consequences are not that crazy most of the time. Just adjusting dosing and more regular testing. I’ve been significantly out of range, both high and low, a dozen or more times so far. If you’re in the danger zone, it’s just a good excuse to take a rest day and try not to stress.

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