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Had a shift last Tuesday where every single connector fought back
Three different planes all had harnesses that were basically glued together with old sealant and corrosion. Spent 45 minutes trying to get a cannon plug loose on a King radio rack before I finally grabbed the strap wrench. Then the next plane had a BNC connector that must have been torqued by a gorilla. My hands are still sore. Anyone else ever get one of those days where it feels like the avionics are personally out to get you?
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grace_gonzalez461mo ago
Those connectors are supposed to be tight for a reason.
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Three different planes all had harnesses that were basically glued together" dude you are NOT kidding lol. I had a shift last month where I literally had to use a heat gun AND penetrating oil on a D-sub connector that looked like it was dipped in RTV from the factory. Took me a solid hour to get it loose without breaking the pins. And the worst part? After all that wrestling, the radio still failed the test so I had to swap the whole tray anyway. My knuckles were scraped up for a week from that stupid BNC connector on the GPS antenna cable too.
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charliestone24d ago
Hold up though. Are we really acting like a little RTV on a connector is the end of the world? I mean yeah it's annoying when you gotta break out the heat gun but that stuff is there for a reason. Vibration and corrosion don't care about your scraped knuckles. Plus a D-sub with some sealant is way better than one that's loose and causing intermittents at 35,000 feet. You said you got it off without breaking pins so honestly that sounds like a win to me. Sometimes I think people just like to complain about the easy fixes and ignore the real nightmare jobs like chasing a broken wire inside a wing panel.
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