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I spent 2 years cleaning cannon plugs with the wrong brush and a retired LC-130 guy caught it in 30 seconds
So I was at the hangar in Bangor doing some routine work on a C-130 and this retired avionics guy named Walt was visiting, and he watched me go at a cannon plug with a stiff nylon brush and a little bit of isopropyl. He didn't say anything at first, just kind of tilted his head. Then he asked me how many contacts I'd had to replace in the past 6 months. When I said probably 15 or 20 he just nodded and told me to try a soft bristle brush and a lint free wipe, nothing else. Turns out I'd been scrubbing the plating right off the pins for 2 years and creating the exact corrosion problems I thought I was preventing. Since I switched on the Starlight stuff 3 months ago I haven't replaced a single contact. I felt like a total idiot but honestly it's the best tip I've gotten in a while. Anyone else have a moment like this where someone just watched you do it wrong and let you figure it out?
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spencer7821mo ago
How did nobody else catch that for two whole years? That is wild to me. Walt just standing there watching you scrub the plating off and saying nothing until he asked the right question is the most old crew chief thing ever. The stiff brush feels like it is doing more but all it does is eat the tin off the pins and then the corrosion comes right back where you cleaned. A soft brush and a lint free wipe is all those contacts ever needed. Fifteen or twenty replaced contacts in six months should have been a red flag way earlier. Good on you for actually trying his way instead of getting mad about it.
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