Why does nobody talk about D-sub pin damage during connector seating

I used to think all those warnings about being careful with D-subs were overblown until I had to pull a 62-pin connector off a Garmin G500H in a Bell 407 last month. Found three bent pins that were causing intermittent attitude failures that had been written up five times. Now I always use a pin alignment tool and check every row before mating - saved me from chasing a gremlin for days. Anyone else run into this on their builds?

3 comments

3 Comments

alicecraig1mo ago

That G500H is a nightmare with those 62-pin connectors, I had the same kind of problem on a King Air 350 where the autopilot would drop out randomly. Did you ever figure out if the bent pins were from people rushing the seating or from the connector getting torqued sideways in a tight panel? I swear half the time it's just someone not checking that the locking screws are aligned before they crank them down.

paulw531mo ago

Oh man, I feel your pain. Those connectors are the worst.

blairc901mo ago

alicecraig, you are 100% right that those tiny locking screws being off is a huge part of it. On that G500H job, I actually saw the same pin bent on the same row three times before I figured out the connector shell had a tiny crack that let the whole thing twist when the screws were tightened. I started marking the shell and the panel with a silver Sharpie so I can see if it shifts when I mate it, and that cut my rework way down. Nothing makes you hate a connector more than chasing a ghost that was just a pin that got kicked out of alignment.