Three hours troubleshooting a $0.50 broken wire on a King Air panel

Had a King Air come in last Tuesday with an intermittent radio dropout. Pulled the whole panel, traced circuits, swapped modules, the works. After two and a half hours of frustration I finally found it - a single corroded pin on a cannon plug that looked fine until I bent the wire at just the right angle. Five minutes with a new pin and everything worked. Has anyone else spent way too long on something that ended up being incredibly simple?

3 comments

3 Comments

james_kim1mo ago

Wait, how many times have we all been there? @the_piper nailed it with that ground wire story, that's pretty much exactly what my King Air felt like. The craziest part is you probably walked right past that cannon plug five times (I know I did) before you really looked at it. It's humiliating and satisfying at the same time when it's something so dumb. Makes you wonder how many other "mystery" problems are just a loose connection nobody checked properly.

the_piper1mo ago

Oh man, the "bend the wire at just the right angle" part hit home SO hard. I spent an ENTIRE Saturday once trying to figure out why my car's aftermarket radio would cut out when I hit a bump. Replaced the antenna, checked the fuse box, pulled half the dash apart. Turns out it was a ground wire that had come loose from the chassis by like, a millimeter. I had to push it back on with my thumb. Hour seven. I was ready to sell the whole car. It is WILD how the smallest dumbest thing can make you feel like you're losing your mind but then also a genius when you find it.

jessicac281mo ago

Used to roll my eyes at people chasing down little electrical gremlins like that... thought they were making a big deal out of nothing. Then my dryer started acting up, kept stopping mid cycle. I was this close to calling a repair guy, telling my wife it was gonna cost a fortune. Turned out it was just the door switch not clicking all the way because a sock was wedged in there. Felt like an absolute idiot but also like I'd conquered the world after I moved that sock. Totally changed my view on how the smallest dumbest things can be the most frustrating... and the most satisfying to fix.