The before and after on an old 737 radio stack I worked up last month

I got a call to look at a radio stack from a 737 that was acting up during approach. The before picture was a mess, wiring was all tangled up and one connector was barely hanging on. After about 6 hours of tracing wires and cleaning contacts, I got it sorted. The after was night and day, the traffic collision system stopped throwing false alerts and the comms were crystal clear. The pilot told me it was the first time in months that approach didn't have to repeat themselves. Has anyone else run into a stack that looked fine but had broken ground pins hiding behind the panel?

3 comments

3 Comments

adam1861d ago

Buddy of mine found a ground pin broken clean off in a stack that looked mint.

sagejackson1d ago

Man that's rough. A buddy of mine found a stack that looked brand new but the VCC pin was completely ripped out. Took him forever to figure out why his system was acting up. Ended up just tossing the whole thing cause the damage was hidden under the plastic.

grantc801d ago

Oh man I've been there too. Found a board that looked absolutely pristine, no scratches, no discoloration, nothing. Plugged it in and got nothing but a reboot loop. Took me three days of testing every single component before I noticed one of the ground pins on the edge connector was sheared off right at the base. Must have happened during manufacturing or shipping cause the plastic was still perfect around it. I tried to solder a new pin on but it was so close to the edge of the board I couldn't get a good connection. That board ended up in the trash too.