I found a wire pulled out of the back of my Radio connector. The picture shows the connector pins from the front. How do I get a single pin out to repair it?
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I found a wire pulled out of the back of my Radio connector. The picture shows the connector pins from the front. How do I get a single pin out to repair it?
There is a special tool used to release the pins.
Fry's, Digikey and Mouser have the tools. They sell for about a buck.
Lacking one of those you can carefully use a jeweler's screwdriver to poke in from the front side between the pin and the body of the connector. gently pry the pin toward the middle of the gap while using light pressure to push the pin back. Edge connectors have two catches so you'll have to do one side, hold the pressure and then release the other.
It's a bit tricky, but possible.
I will order the tool, I have jewlers screwdrivers but couldn't seem to figure it out. The installation manual for the radio shows the tool, it looks like a screwdriver to me, but I don't want to damage the conector, the avionics shop will love me way to much if I bring in ONE pin!
Thanx for the reply.
actually the radio shop here didn't mind at all . what I did for my icom , appears to have the same pins , is have the shop crimp some new pins on a length of wire where I could push out the old pin , install the new pin with wire already crimped on then splice the wires . with the extra length of wire you don't have to worry about the original wire being too short after the repair and you can fold the repaired wire back and forth in the bundle to to get the correct length then tie into the bundle . I recall icom mentioned not soldering their pins as the heat affects the tension of the pin on the radio contact board . once you get a look at one of the pins outside of the connector you can tell what retains them and make a tool to release them .
if you're still working on this project this video might help http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEYXlgnSyhA
Stein Air, one of the advertisers to the left of the main menu, has three different pin extractors (the metal ones) ....$4, $5 or $6 depending on the size.
Dave S
Just an update. The pin was extracted with a locally produced or field expedient tool (two heavy duty construction staples per the video mentioned in the thread. the removal tool did not damage the plastic seat for the pin but the pin was destroyed. The local avionics shop took my old pin, attached a new length of wire to a new pin and I crimped it on with the proper tools. The ICS is functioning fine.
Thank you.