Fixed a wiring harness on a King Air and found a surprise

I was tracing a flickering nav light on a 1998 King Air 350 last week. Pulled the panel and found a wire nut holding three twisted splices together. Worked fine for years apparently, but I told my lead and we had to redo the whole harness. Learned to never assume a previous fix is safe just because it still passes power. Has anyone else found sketchy field repairs that passed multiple inspections?

2 comments

2 Comments

caseyw1213h agoTop Commenter

Man, that's the kind of find that makes you lose sleep over what else is hiding in there.

margaret_nelson7h ago

Hold on though - a wire nut that held for years on a King Air nav light is kinda impressive if you think about it. That splice passed multiple inspections without anyone flagging it, which means it wasn't obviously loose or arcing or anything. Sometimes a janky fix that works reliably is more trustworthy than a brand new one done by a tired mechanic at 4pm on a Friday, you know? I've seen factory terminations fail way faster than some of the sketchy splices I've found in older planes.