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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?
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keith_bennett2mo 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.
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nancyjones2mo 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.
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kai_webb912mo 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.
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