josephbutler•21d agoTop Commenter

Factory test equipment is nice, but my old Fluke still wins the bench war

I spent last Tuesday chasing a intermittent fault on a 737NG display that had the shop stumped for two days. The OEM software suite said everything was fine, so I pulled out my beat up Fluke 87V and started checking the backshell pins one by one. Found a cracked solder joint on pin 23 that the factory setup would never catch because it only tests the box, not the harness. People keep pushing these fancy automated rigs at my shop, but for real troubleshooting, a good meter and a steady hand beat them every time. The automated stuff is great for production lines, not for fixing planes that have been flying for 15 years. Anyone else still lean on hand tools over the new gear when a bird comes in with a weird issue?

3 comments

3 Comments

briancarter20d ago

That bit about the Fluke from the 90s being "dead on accurate" got me thinking... you're not wrong, but those old meters were actually less accurate on paper than today's stuff. The 87V from back then had a slightly looser tolerance on some ranges. Doesn't matter for what we do though, because a tenth of a volt off on a sensor line is still enough to tell you if something's broke. The real difference is the feel and the reliability, not the numbers. Your buddy's meter probably holds its calibration better than the newer ones do after a few drops on the hangar floor.

max41521d ago

My Fluke's older than my apprentice, but at least it still knows where the ground is.

irismartinez20d ago

Gotta admit, I used to be all about picking up the newest gadget every couple years. Thought old test gear was just asking for trouble, you know? But then I borrowed my buddy's ancient Fluke from the 90s and it was dead on accurate, honestly felt more solid than my newer one. Changed my whole view on it. Now I'm all for keeping the old workhorses running if they still do the job, cheap beats new when it actually works.