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Spent 11 hours chasing a fuel gauge gremlin on a 172 and it was one wire
Last Tuesday I pulled a Cessna 172 into the hangar at our shop in Boise because the left fuel gauge would drop to zero whenever the flaps came down. I swore it was the sender, so I swapped it, then the gauge, then chased grounds through the whole wing, and 11 hours later I found a chafed wire behind the panel that only lost contact when the flap motor drew current. I felt like a rookie for missing it on the first pass. What's your worst electrical gremlin that turned out to be something dumb?
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garcia.tyler6d ago
Wait, the flaps actually made the gauge drop? That is wild. I would have bet money it was the sender too, no question. Eleven hours on a chafed wire behind the panel sounds about right for this kind of work, those gremlins love hiding where you least expect them. What gets me is how a flap motor pulling current was enough to kill the gauge reading, that is such a tiny load change. You are not a rookie for missing that on the first pass, I have seen guys with 30 years in the shop chase stuff like this for days. Honestly the fact that you found it at all says more than how long it took.
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