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Crumbling backshell

Dugaru

Well Known Member
Electrical gurus:

I noticed a little gray fleck of plastic on the floor of my RV-9A. Investigated and discovered the backshell of one of the d-sub connectors on my EIS 4000 was crumbling at the screw locations. Not a great photo but it gives you the gist:

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0BIlgg1ka1WGHV78zK_8iOzmg

This is presumably the d-sub connector that was installed by the builder back in the 2005-2007 time frame.

And there's more: the crumbling pieces (one chunk fell off into my fingers when I touched the connector) felt slightly oily, as if they had just the tiniest misting of a really light machine oil.

I didn't see any obvious signs of staining, leaks, etc. anywhere behind the panel, but I didn't do any really serious spelunking yet.

What's going on here, do you think?

Also: what brand/kind of backshell should I replace it with? Given the joys of rooting around behind the panel, I'd like something as durable as possible!

Thanks in advance for any ideas.
 
Replacing plastic with more plastic??

What you need is something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Metalized-Plastic-Hoods-Thumbscrew-Connector/dp/B01NAPY8I2

You can get them in many places, but I'd plan to pull the panel and see what's going on. Sounds like there is more to this story. Will be a great experience for you if you have not done this before.

Mickey,
Your link shows more plastic housings. How are these better than what he is having problems with? Are you using these items with success? Just asking.

Charlie
 
Buy them from Stein and be done with it. If possible, try to get the ones that have slot ends on the screws so you can use a small screw driver to help reach in tight places.
 
Thanks to all

I really appreciate the info. My working theory is that, unrelated to my degrading connector, I may be getting just a hint of water behind the panel. Flew through some rain lately. In any event, I need to chase that down as well!
 
DB housing

Mickey,
Your link shows more plastic housings. How are these better than what he is having problems with? Are you using these items with success? Just asking.

Charlie
Hi Charlie, yes, I've used plastic, "metalized" plastic, and metal. For back of the panel to connect to the EIS and EFIS, there's not a lot of difference between them. The area behind the panel should be very much a "shirt-sleeve" environment.
 
To me it just looks like the attachment screws were over tightened and probably cracked the backshell. This type of plastic is pretty brittle.
 
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