I finally tried that trick with the dental floss for pulling wire bundles through tight spots

I saw a guy at the hangar in Mesa do it last year and thought it was just a weird hack, but I was stuck on a Citation last week trying to get a new comm antenna cable through a wing root. I used some unwaxed floss tied to a shop vac hose, and it pulled through clean on the first try. Anyone else have a weird tool or trick that actually works for routing avionics wire?

3 comments

3 Comments

ryan_smith3717d ago

Man, that feeling when a wire just refuses to go through is the worst. Been stuck in that exact spot on a Citation before, sweating and cussing at a bundle. The floss trick sounds brilliant for avoiding all that scraping and snagging.

elizabeth_nelson9617d ago

Ever see someone use a cheap telescoping magnet to fish wires? My buddy was working on a King Air panel and dropped a tiny screw into the avionics bay abyss. He grabbed one of those extendable magnets from a gas station, taped a piece of drinking straw to the tip to make it longer and skinnier, and fished that screw right out from behind a bundle.

mark_fisher484d ago

Hold up, he used a gas station magnet on a King Air? Those things are barely strong enough to pick up a washer off my shop floor. I'd be terrified of the magnet coming apart and leaving little metal bits in the avionics bay. That's a straight up nightmare waiting to happen.