PSA: I finally started using a torque wrench on cannon plugs and it saved my sanity on a CRJ last month

Grant Thomas · 2026-10-02T10:05:05.172041+00:00

For about six years I was that guy who just snugged cannon plugs down by feel and called it good. Never had a comeback, so I figured my hands were calibrated fine. Then in February I was doing a connector swap on a CRJ-200 in the hangar at Richmond and the crew lead, a guy named Dale who has 30 years on me, watched me torque a plug by wrist and just shook his head. He handed me his 8 inch pound wrench and said try it once. Turns out I had been overcranking plugs by a good margin, and I found two pins on that same rack that were starting to push back out of the insert. Now every cannon plug gets the wrench, set to the spec in the AMM, and I mark it off on the task card. It adds maybe 90 seconds per connector but I have not had a single intermittent since. If you are still doing it by feel, what finally made you switch, or am I the only one who waited this long?

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PSA: I finally started using a torque wrench on cannon plugs and it saved my sanity on a CRJ last month | Avionics Technicians - Topic Shares