Question about torque stripe discipline on cannon plug connectors

I keep seeing guys skip the torque stripe on cannon plug connectors after a re-pin, and it bugs me more than it should. Last Tuesday I was doing a continuity check on a fuel quantity harness in a hangar down here in Wichita, and I found three connectors on the same run where somebody had hand-tightened and called it good, no stripe, no witness mark, nothing. Here is the thing, that stripe is not decoration, it is the only way the next guy knows if a connector has backed off from vibration or got cracked loose during a panel swap. I have seen a loose plug cause an intermittent IFE fault that ate two days of troubleshooting on a 737, and the fix was a quarter turn. It takes ten seconds with a torque seal pen, and it saves the guy on the next shift a pile of guesswork. Am I being too picky about this, or do you all stripe every single connector even on quick write-ups?

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the_kelly6d ago

That bit about the stripe being the only way the next guy knows is dead on. Reminds me of when I helped a buddy rebuild the brakes on his old truck and he skipped the lock nuts, and a caliper bolt backed out two weeks later on the highway. We got lucky nobody got hurt, but it taught me that the little step somebody skips is the one that bites you later. So no, you are not being too picky, because the guy on the next shift is trusting that mark.

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