elizabethwhite•6d agoProlific Poster

Changed my mind about using canned air on old connectors

My lead tech, Frank, told me to never use canned air on old cannon plugs, especially on the C-130s we work on. He said the quick blast can push old grease and grime deeper into the pins. I thought he was just being overly careful, so I did it anyway on a UHF radio plug last week. Sure enough, after I blasted it and reinstalled, we got intermittent comms. Had to pull the whole connector, clean each pin with a proper solvent and brush, which took about two hours. Frank just shook his head. What's your go-to method for cleaning those old, greasy multi-pin connectors without making a bigger mess?

2 comments

2 Comments

luna_craig586d ago

Ever try using a fiberglass pen on the pins? It sounds weird but it gently scrapes the gunk off without pushing it around. I keep one in my kit for exactly this kind of connector mess. It's way faster than solvents once you get the hang of it.

the_ben6d ago

Fiberglass pens leave tiny bits everywhere though, don't they? That just seems like trading one kind of mess for another. Is the gunk on these old connectors even that big of a deal to need a special tool? A quick wipe usually does the job for me. Maybe it's a solution for a problem that isn't really there.