Vent: Almost lost a $12k panel because of a bad ground strap

Last month at KDCA I was wrapping up a G1000 install on a 172. Everything checked out on the bench, but in the plane I kept getting intermittent data errors on the AHRS. After 3 days of swapping boxes and pulling my hair out, I found a ground strap that looked fine but had a hairline crack right at the crimp. Replaced it with a new one from Aircraft Spruce and it fixed everything. Has anyone else run into ground straps failing like that even when they look good?

2 comments

2 Comments

troyp371mo ago

Tbh that sounds like a total nightmare. I've seen ground straps fail in that exact spot before and it's always the last thing you check. It's wild how something that tiny can make you question everything for days.

the_skyler1mo ago

Wait, is it actually a ground strap failure or more of a connector pin getting loose over time? I've seen a few of these where the bolt holding the strap looked fine but the actual terminal had corrosion under it that you couldn't see until you pulled it off. That's the part that gets me - you check the obvious stuff first, the strap looks solid, but the real issue is hiding underneath where nobody looks. Usually takes a multimeter and some wiggling to find it, and by then you've already swapped three other parts.