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A line guy in Oklahoma City saved my inspection career with one habit
Last spring I was doing a pre-buy on a 172 and kept second guessing myself on a corroded battery terminal. The line guy walked by, saw me staring, and said 'stop looking at it, touch it.' He made me grab the cable and flex it, and sure enough the lug snapped right off in my hand. Now I do a physical tug test on every terminal before I write anything up. Anyone else got a simple hands-on check that beats visual inspection every time?
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roberts.troy1mo ago
That tug test works on more than just battery lugs. I started flexing the whole cable end to end after a 172 came in with a ground strap that looked fine but crumbled when I bent it near the firewall. Corrosion creeps up under the insulation where your eyes never reach it. A slow twist on the cable while you watch for the strands to shift will show you a bad crimp fast, sometimes before the owner even signs the paperwork.
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shane_nguyen1mo ago
Wait, a ground strap that crumbles just from bending it near the firewall? That is wild. I have seen crusty battery terminals all day but a cable that looks fine on the outside and turns to dust inside the jacket is a whole other level of scary. That means the thing was basically hanging on by a thread and the owner had no clue. Guess I am bending every ground strap I touch from now on, that visual alone is worth the extra minute.
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