Guy at the shop showed me what happens with bad coax crimps on a 737

Last month we had a plane come in with intermittent COM1 issues, and the young guy swore it was the radio itself. I told him to check the BNC connection first, and sure enough the center pin was barely hanging on from a bad crimp job someone did. That little mistake caused three hours of troubleshooting before we finally traced it back to a $2 connector. Why do so many guys skip using the correct die for RG400 crimps? I've seen this exact problem five times this year alone. Has anyone else caught a similar issue that saved the shop a ton of time?

3 comments

3 Comments

anna_ross199d ago

Can't believe how many times bad crimps cause all that headache, especially when the fix is so dirt cheap and simple.

wesley_martin9d ago

Yeah but why is it always the most basic stuff that trips people up? I see it all the time where someone will spend big money on fancy parts but totally botch the crimping because they rush it. A good crimper is like 20 bucks and takes five minutes to learn if you watch a quick video. It really does make you wonder why folks skip the easy step and end up with all that frustration.

hunt.quinn8d ago

Right on @wesley_martin, I dug a smashed BNC out of a 737 last month that same exact way, took two minutes to fix.