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Pin connector failed mid-flight, repair or replace whole harness?
Had a DME backup display go dark last Tuesday on a 737 out of Phoenix. Turns out a single pin in the ARINC 429 connector came loose, probably from years of vibration and thermal cycling. I spent 6 hours tracing it, and the fix was just re-crimping that one pin, but the lead said we should swap the entire harness since it's 12 years old. That's around $4,800 in parts versus basically free for the crimp job. I get the whole harness argument for reliability, but a full replacement takes another day of downtime and the other pins tested fine. I've seen crimped pins last another decade if done right, but also seen them fail again in a few months. What's your rule of thumb for this, replace the whole thing or trust the single fix?
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vera_palmer21d ago
Hold your breath and hope the crimp holds, or start rehearsing your "I told you so" speech.
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