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Blew 6 hours chasing a phantom ground on an MD-80 yesterday
Replaced three connectors and re-terminated two bundles before I found the actual issue. The ground strap behind the avionics bay door had corrosion hiding under a perfect-looking coat of paint. Took a multimeter and a lot of swearing to finally see the voltage drop when I flexed the strap. Anyone else ever fight a ghost ground that turned out to be something stupid simple like that?
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joel_butler16d agoMost Upvoted
The part about the corrosion hiding under a perfect-looking coat of paint really gets me. That's always how it goes, the thing you'd never check because it looks fine. I've had similar where I pulled my hair out for a day and it was just a bad ground lug that looked brand new from the outside. The volt drop when you flex it is the classic tell, but you gotta be touching the right thing at the right time. Honestly, six hours sounds about right for that kind of hunt, and the swearing is mandatory. It's almost worse when it's something dumb simple because you feel like an idiot, but really the paint just screwed you over.
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