Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Section: avionics
Hours: 5

I got to the P1001 connector after much disassembly. Not only are the pins bent, but they are loose and easily wobble around in the plug (pins on lower side of connector in photo below).

I do not think this plug can be repaired. I am going to ask SteinAir to wire up a new plug with a harness that will plug into the good pins of the existing connector. I will bypass the broken pins with jumpers directly to the new connector. I will also have to move the cooling fan wires and the sim module to the new plug.

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Section: avionics
Hours: 7

I am puzzled why the pins on the P1001 connector keep bending. My first thought was that the connector on the back of the GTN was damaged. Here is a picture of the connector. You can see where the bent pins marked the backplate, but the female pins are not obviously blocked.

I was able to insert loose male pins in all the J1001 female pins. There was no blockage.

Next step is to get to the P1001 connector which requires tearing apart the whole panel (again...).

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Section: avionics
Hours: 6

I carefully double checked the wiring and made sure the remaining loose ends were safely shielded. I made sure all the switches on the panel were in the off position and connected the battery.

Then I flipped the battery master and heard the contractor click. The panel then started up! Feeling lucky I also flipped on the avionics and lighting. No smoke escaped!

Everything was looking good but then the GTN650 diagnostics reported this:

The cooling fan failure is a non start. The GTN650 runs hot and the fan is not optional. I pulled the GTN box out of the tray and discovered the connector repair I made had not worked. I had very carefully installed the GTN into the tray and didn't feel any resistance when I plugged it in. Despite all the care, pins were still bent. :-(

Time to contact SteinAir...