Day 1 of a 2 week vacation. Motor sailing north on Lake Michigan. Everything going fine when suddenly boat veers to port and the off course alarm on the autopilot sounds.
Put on standby and correct course.
Start looking for the problem.
Do several diagnostic tests and still no luck.
Call dealer service department and unbelievably reach the service manager on a Saturday morning. (not to mention being 8 miles off the Michigan shore calling a dealer in Wisconsin - ain't technology grand? Sometimes !).
More diagnostics while motors sailing at his direction.
Still no success.
Only thing left is to wait until port and start more serious work.
Hoping that it isn't a failure of the electronics that would of course be more difficult to find and to fix.
In port when engine is off and it's quiet start the diagnostic process.
Engage autopilot and execute a port and starboard turn. Can hear drive activate but wheel doesn't move.
Suspecting what problem is. Open the emergency tiller access port and reach in to feel around.
Confirm what I was suspecting. The nut holding the linear drive to the ruder has fallen off and the arm has disconnected. So bad news is that the repair isn't as simple as a fuse, good news is that it's not an electronic component melt down.
Now have to pull the floor panel out. Thankfully had read other posts on here about doing that so I had the insights that you have to pull all the screws and slide the floor out the stern.
Once floor was out, it was a 10 minute fix.
Side benefit is that I've now gotten a chance to clean out all the junk (dirt, spiders, part of a birds nest) that had collected under the floor. And I know have knowledge of a part of the boat I had yet to explore. Always like to have the knowledge of "what's under there, and how does it work".
Put on standby and correct course.
Start looking for the problem.
Do several diagnostic tests and still no luck.
Call dealer service department and unbelievably reach the service manager on a Saturday morning. (not to mention being 8 miles off the Michigan shore calling a dealer in Wisconsin - ain't technology grand? Sometimes !).
More diagnostics while motors sailing at his direction.
Still no success.
Only thing left is to wait until port and start more serious work.
Hoping that it isn't a failure of the electronics that would of course be more difficult to find and to fix.
In port when engine is off and it's quiet start the diagnostic process.
Engage autopilot and execute a port and starboard turn. Can hear drive activate but wheel doesn't move.
Suspecting what problem is. Open the emergency tiller access port and reach in to feel around.
Confirm what I was suspecting. The nut holding the linear drive to the ruder has fallen off and the arm has disconnected. So bad news is that the repair isn't as simple as a fuse, good news is that it's not an electronic component melt down.
Now have to pull the floor panel out. Thankfully had read other posts on here about doing that so I had the insights that you have to pull all the screws and slide the floor out the stern.
Once floor was out, it was a 10 minute fix.
Side benefit is that I've now gotten a chance to clean out all the junk (dirt, spiders, part of a birds nest) that had collected under the floor. And I know have knowledge of a part of the boat I had yet to explore. Always like to have the knowledge of "what's under there, and how does it work".
