Hot take: People keep using the wrong torque on coax connectors and it's causing intermittent faults.

I've seen this three times in the last month at our hangar. Guys are just cranking down BNC and TNC connectors by hand, thinking 'tight is right'. A tech I work with had a G1000 system with a random COMM 2 failure, and after two days of chasing wires, we found the barrel connector on the antenna feed was torqued to over 40 inch-pounds. The spec sheet for that part clearly says 15-20 inch-pounds. Over-torquing crushes the dielectric and creates a bad connection that comes and goes. What's the weirdest intermittent fault you've traced back to a simple connector issue?

3 comments

3 Comments

tylerj224d ago

You're totally right about over-torquing, but it's worth noting the spec can change with the connector brand. I've seen some TNCs that actually want 25-30 inch-pounds, not the usual 15-20. It's one of those things where you really have to check the paperwork for that exact part number.

wesley1814d ago

Yeah, learned that the hard way too. My torque wrench was set for one brand and I nearly wrecked a different one. Always double check the sheet now.

brian_smith64d ago

Good point, @tylerj22. I read a forum post once where a guy stripped his threads because he just assumed the spec from a different brand.