Checked out the old TWA terminal at JFK and the wiring bundles were a sight to see
I was at the TWA Hotel last week and got a close look at some of the old avionics bays they have on display. The sheer number of individual wires in those old analog bundles, all hand-laced, is wild compared to today's digital buses. Anyone still work on gear from that era and have stories about troubleshooting those rats' nests?
Three days sounds about right for that kind of hunt. I read a piece by an old repairman who said you should always check the wires that bend or get pinched first, like where they go through a chassis hole. He called it "chasing the stress points." It makes the job a bit less like looking for a needle in a haystack. That method saved me a ton of time on a vintage amplifier last year. The break was right where the harness turned a sharp corner against the frame.