Spent 8 hours chasing a ground loop on a Cessna 172 last weekend

I was pulling my hair out over a fluctuating GPS signal, replaced the antenna and still nothing. Finally traced it to a bad ground bond on the firewall that was painted over by some shop years ago. Anyone else run into a hidden ground issue that ate up your whole Saturday?

3 comments

3 Comments

rubyk261mo ago

Scratching my head over a similar issue on a Bonanza once. Finally found a bad ground at the engine mount, the paint was chipping off under the bolt.

margareto261mo ago

Paint chipping under a bolt. Typical. Grounds are always the last thing you check after tearing your hair out for three days. That Bonanza must have been real happy to finally get a decent path to ground.

tessa_murray1mo ago

Bull. Grounds are the first thing any real mechanic checks. Sloppy troubleshooting.