c/avionics-technicians

Blew 400 bucks on a fancy harness tester, back to my old rig

So last month I finally gave in and bought that automated harness tester everyone swears by. Figured it would save me time on these big multi-pin looms we do for the regional jets. Ran it on a 60-pin bundle for a flap control unit and it kept flagging false opens on the same three pins. After 2 hours of chasing ghosts I pulled out my old homemade continuity rig with the buzz box and a 9V battery. Found the actual issue in 20 minutes, it was a cracked solder joint on the connector backshell. I know the new gear is supposed to be better but my hands-on method still beats it on weird intermittent stuff. Anyone else ditched expensive test equipment for the older manual stuff on certain jobs? What's your go-to for stubborn opens?

Took me 10 years to admit the old analog test sets have a place

I spent my first decade in this trade swearing by digital multimeters and trashing anyone who kept a Simpson 260 around for anything besides a paperweight, but last month I had to trace an intermittent short in a King radio harness at a shop in Tucson and the needle flutter told me in thirty seconds what my Fluke couldn't catch in two hours. The analog meter showed a brief dip that my digital just averaged out and ignored, and now I keep one in my bag for certain troubleshooting. Anyone else ever get humbled by the 'outdated' gear they used to mock?

Spent $120 on a fancy crimper I barely use now

Last month I got talked into buying one of those digital crimpers for D-sub pins at a tool expo in Dallas. The guy swore it would pay for itself with consistent crimps and less waste. I spent $120 on it, and honestly my old manual crimper was doing just fine. The digital one has a screen that needs batteries, and the calibration drifts if you drop it on the hangar floor. I used it twice, then went back to the handheld because it is faster and I can feel when the pin seats right. Now it sits in my toolbox as a very expensive paperweight. Anyone else buy a tool that sounded great at the demo but turned out to be overkill for daily bench work?

That IRS PMA audit Friday actually went smooth for once

We had the FAA rep walk through our hangar in Tulsa all day, and I thought it would be a nightmare. But our wiring harness logs were spotless because I spent the extra 20 minutes each night verifying the pin numbers. The inspector even said my torque seal method was the cleanest she'd seen. Any of you guys find a trick to keep your logbook entries from getting sloppy when you're rushing?

The flightline at PDX has a new grounding reel setup

Stopped by the hangar at Portland International last week to help a buddy with an LRU swap, and noticed they switched to those retractable grounding reels near the fuel panels. The old cables used to tangle every time we pulled them out, but these new ones spool back smooth in about 4 seconds. Anyone else's shop made the change, and have you had issues with the spring tension wearing out faster than the cable?

That FAA inspector who questioned my pin torque log in Memphis

Airbus in Denver made me drop my pin test habit

I was doing a harness check on an A320 at KDEN last month and the senior guy there said to quit poking backshells with the test pin, that's how you crack the socket barrels. He showed me a connector with two broken pins from exactly that. Has anyone else switched to using a breakout box full time?

Hit 10,000 flight hours last Tuesday, still can't stop checking the wiring gauge

Crossed 10,000 total flight hours on avionics bench work and line calls in Amarillo. The number itself didn't hit me until I counted how many pin connectors I've re-terminated in that time, rough guess is 4,200. Anyone else keep a running tally of something weird like that just to prove the grind?

That new tester firmware made my bench read 30 volts high

Updated the firmware on my Fluke 787 last Tuesday before a 737 pitot static check. Everything looked fine on the display, but the actual output was way off, nearly flagged a bad air data computer that was totally fine. Tech support said the calibration values got wiped during the update, something in the release notes I skipped. Anyone else had a firmware update mess with their calibration constants? What do you guys use to verify after updates?

Wiring harness wrap comparison after a rough week on a CRJ-700

I spent nearly 4 hours taping a bundle with standard friction tape and it kept slipping, so I tried the self-fusing silicone wrap someone left in the shop. Night and day difference, it stayed put around a tight bend near the fuel probe. Anyone else switched and never looked back?

Refurbished test set paid for itself in 2 weeks

Dropped $4,800 on a used IFR 4000 from a shop in Phoenix, thought I was gambling but it caught a bad VOR receiver on a King Air that would've grounded us for days. Anyone else trust refurbished gear over new for bench work, or am I the only one rolling the dice?

The moment I realized I was using the crimp tool backwards

Been doing avionics for 5 years now. Always had trouble with intermittent shorts in the D-sub pins on the 737s we service at KDAL. Figured it was just cheap pins or old wire. Then last Tuesday a senior guy watched me do one and goes 'why are you crimping from the top?' I had the die orientation flipped the whole time. One quick fix and my terminations tested clean first try. Felt like a total idiot. Anyone else have a basic tool habit that was wrong for years before someone said something?

Unpopular opinion: pin testing every LRU is a waste of time

Honestly, I keep seeing guys on this forum swear by pinning out every single LRU on the bench before even looking at the plane's logs. Tbh, that's backwards. At KDEN last month I spent 3 hours chasing a bad pin on a GPS antenna that the pilot's write-up said was intermittent, and the real issue was a cracked shield in the coax at the tail. Ngl, if you check the wiring diagram first and trace the path from the antenna to the rack, you cut your troubleshooting time in half. Why do all that pin work when the fault is usually in the harness, not the box? Has anyone else had better luck going straight to the cable runs instead of pulling the unit first?

TIL the hard way why you never trust a 30 year old wire harness after a quick swap in Atlanta

I swapped out an old harness on a 727 in 3 hours thinking I was saving time, but the new one had a pin mismatch that grounded the whole nav system, so now I spend 20 minutes double checking every pinout before I touch anything, anyone else learn that lesson the hard way?

Warning: the 3 AM autopilot test in Mobile changed my preflight routine

I was doing a box check on a King Air outside Mobile last month and the whole pitch trim runaway test gave me a scare I haven't shaken. The annunciator lit up like a Christmas tree and the jackscrew actually cycled twice before I pulled the breaker, all while the pilot was shouting 'what did you touch?'. Has anyone else had a runaway trim simulator lie to you during a test, or is my test box just getting too old to trust?}

A Delta pilot's 2-minute question saved me from 3 hours of rework

Last month at the Orlando hangar, a first officer asked why I was replacing a whole Gogo box when the coax connector was the obvious suspect. I had already pulled the rack and started swapping units when he said, "You know the pin depth on those runs is way off, right?" That tip led me to find a bad terminator in the wing root, and I've checked harness impedance before swapping any box since. Has anyone else had a flight crew point out something that ended up saving you a bundle?

Fiber optic test gear, buy once or rent until you're sure?

Been going back and forth on pulling the trigger for a $2,800 OTDR vs renting one every time I do a big install. I ended up buying a used one off a retired guy in Phoenix and it's been solid, but now I'm worried about calibration fees eating me alive. Anyone make the same call and regret it, or feel like renting was the smarter play?

Flat vs ribbon cable for a 737 IFE rewire last week

Had to decide between standard flat ribbon and shielded twisted pair for a cabin entertainment system on a 737-800. Went with the flat cable because it was easier to route through the overhead bins. Saved me about 3 hours of crimping time on a Friday night shift. But now I'm getting some interference on the audio channels. Has anyone else run into this tradeoff?

Debate: Do you go factory test gear or build your own test jigs?

I had to make a call on a 737NG pitot static test last month. Factory box from Honeywell would have cost the shop $4,000 but it just works. I ended up building my own jig from spare parts and it passed the leak check but the pressure decay readings were all over the place. Took me 3 extra hours to figure out a bad O-ring I missed. What do you all lean toward when you have to do a quick test on a tight budget?

PSA: That fiber optic termination kit from the supply closet almost cost me a $12k repair

Last Tuesday at DAL, I used a cleaver that had been sitting in the tool drawer for months and it was dull as hell - left micro-cracks in the splice. Anyone else check their termination tools before every job now, or am I the only one who learned this the hard way?

That wiring fault that took me 6 hours to find

Was chasing an intermittent comm dropout on a King Air last week. Turned out to be a single pin that wasn't fully seated in the backshell, hidden behind a bundle of other wires. Anyone else had a tiny issue like that eat up a whole shift?

Vent: That time a pilot told me my wire routing looked like a bird's nest

A few months back I was doing a panel upgrade on a 172 at a small GA field in Oregon. This crusty old crop duster pilot walks by and says my wire ties looked like a drunken spider made them (you know, the kind of guy who doesn't mince words). He told me to strip each bundle at 90 degree angles and leave exactly 1/4 inch of slack at every bend instead of pulling them tight. I was annoyed at first, but after I re-did it the way he showed me, troubleshooting later was way easier. Now I always leave that little bit of wiggle room on the harnesses and it's saved me like 30 minutes per job. Has anyone else gotten super specific feedback from a random pilot that actually worked out?

Wasted $400 on a fancy wiring tool I barely use now

I bought that expensive automatic wire stripper from the trade show in Phoenix last year. Thought it would save me tons of time on harness builds at the hangar. After three tries it kept nicking the shielding on 22 gauge wire, so now it just sits in my box. Anyone else drop cash on a tool that ended up being more trouble than it was worth?

Hit 10,000 wire terminations last Tuesday and it made me pause

Was doing my logbook for a routine harness repair on a CRJ-200 when I added up my numbers. 5 years in avionics, 14 different aircraft types, and I crossed 10,000 solder joints and crimps. Never really thought about the cumulative count until that moment. Any of you guys keep track of your lifetime terminations or am I just weird about documentation?

Overheard an old timer say something at a trade show that made me rethink my whole test bench setup

I was at the AEA show in Dayton last month, just walking around. This guy who looked like he had been turning wrenches since the 70s was talking to a vendor about how he never uses those expensive automated testers for basic continuity checks. He said something like "if you can't trust a $20 multimeter and a good schematic, you don't understand the circuit well enough to fly it." That hit me hard because I probably spent $4,000 on a fancy analyzer last year that I barely use for half of my daily work. I spend more time reading menus on that thing than actually troubleshooting. Now I'm looking at my bench and wondering if I got sold a bunch of gear I don't need. Made me realize the fundamentals might be slipping with all this new tech. Has anyone else gone back to simpler tools after getting buried in expensive test equipment?