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Took me 6 hours to find a simple ground fault today
Working on a 737 in Atlanta. Got a flickering NAV light on the right wing. Guess I was too quick to blame the ballast. Chased wiring for 5 hours before I realized it was just a bad ground pin in the connector. One crimp fixed it. Anyone else spend way too long on something that simple?
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felix_lane9922d ago
On the 737, the ground pins in the connector are usually crimped with a specific tool that puts a little dimple in the pin. If you don't use that tool, it might test fine but slip under vibration. I've seen guys just squeeze them with regular pliers and think it's good. That dimple is what locks the pin into the connector housing and keeps the ground solid. Without it, you get exactly what you described - a flickering light that passes a multimeter test. It's a pain but that's why Boeing calls for the special crimper.
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charlie_ellis22d ago
And that's the thing with grounds specifically, they can test fine with a multimeter but still fail under load. Had a similar issue on a Gulfstream where the ground looked perfect on paper but would just randomly drop out when the vibes got going.
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