Visited a shop near O'Hare and noticed something weird about their wiring harnesses

I was picking up a delivery at a small avionics shop in Schiller Park last Tuesday and saw they had all their harnesses wrapped in this bright orange mesh tape. Not the usual black loom or heat shrink stuff. The lead tech said it was for easier tracing on night shifts under the panel lights. Has anyone else run into shops using colored tapes like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

patricia31716d ago

Funny you mention that, I actually tried a similar thing on my own plane last year. Swapped out the black loom for some bright blue split tubing on a few hard-to-see runs behind the panel. Made it a ton easier to trace a bad ground wire at dusk without a headlamp. Just make sure whatever tape you use is rated for the heat and vibration, the orange mesh stuff might hold up fine but the cheap colored stuff can get brittle fast.

sarah53116d ago

The blue split tubing trick is smart, I went a step further on my Cessna and color coded everything by system. Red for power, yellow for avionics, green for grounds, that sort of thing. Took a weekend to set up but tracing a short at 3am last fall took maybe 10 minutes instead of an hour of swearing. One thing I'd add, the adhesive on some of those colored tapes can melt and drip onto your wiring if you're in a hot hangar. I switched to a high temp adhesive wrap from a local auto parts store and it's held up through two summers now with no issues.

thea85716d ago

That bit about the adhesive melting is spot on, I had the same issue with some cheap colored split loom I grabbed online. @patricia317, you're right that the heat rating is key, after a hot summer in the Arizona sun I found gooey residue all over a bundle near the firewall. I ended up using a high temp silicone tape from a truck parts store, it's a bit pricier but doesn't get brittle or drip, and it still glows under a panel light at night. The blue split tubing trick is smart, I went a step further on my Cessna and color coded everything by system. Red for power, yellow for avionics, green for grounds, that sort of thing. Took a weekend to set up but tracing a short at 3am last fall took maybe 10 minutes instead of an hour of swearing.