Dropped $180 on a Fluke meter that kept giving ghost readings on a Cessna 172

Picked up a used Fluke 87V off eBay thinking I got a steal. Hooked it up to test a nav antenna on a 172 last Thursday and the coax kept showing 50 ohms then jumping to 150 for no reason. Chased my tail for two hours swapping out cables and connectors. Finally borrowed a buddy's meter and the antenna was fine. My Fluke had a bad input jack from the seller. Cost me a full afternoon and an earful from the lead mechanic. Any of you guys had luck fixing those jacks or should I just chunk it?

3 comments

3 Comments

keith_bennett1mo ago

Bought a used Fluke 87V from some guy on Craigslist a couple years ago and had the exact same issue. Turned out the common jack was loose and the solder joint was cracked. I spent a whole day troubleshooting a fuel system on a Piper Archer only to find out my meter was reading resistance wrong. You can fix the jacks yourself if you're handy with a soldering iron, just gotta be careful not to melt the plastic housing. Replacement jacks are like $15 on Amazon and there's a few YouTube vids that walk you through it. But if you're not into that, Fluke will repair them for like $80 flat rate. Honestly though I just ended up buying a new one and keep the old one as a backup for rough jobs.

nancyjones1mo ago

Wonder if the previous owner already knew about the bad jack and sold it cheap because of it, that's happened to me before with used test gear.

kai_webb911mo ago

@nancyjones that's the thing with used gear. People dump their junk and call it a deal. Bought a scope once that "just needed a fuse" nope, whole power supply was fried. Ended up costing more to fix than a new one.