Raymarine st4000

[secondwind410]

Hi I have a raymarine auto pilot that came with the boat I bought. The unit was not installed properly. It works but the pedestal support bracket was never installed. The motor basically is the support taking the place of the bracket. I would like to install it properly but the two holes on the back of the wheel drive do not line up with a suitable mounting spot on the pedestal. My question is, does anyone know if I can drill a hole in the backplate of the autopilot to use as a mounting point for the pedestal support bracket. I have not had the backplate apart before. Is there anything special about the position of the two holes in the backplate or did Raymarine just arbitrarily put them in the plastic. Does anyone see a problem with doing this?
thanks

 

[mystery117]

Got a manual?

Hi I have a raymarine auto pilot that came with the boat I bought. The unit was not installed properly...

I bought a used one a few years back and managed to get the manual on line. Try looking through it to see it helps.

 

[Ted]

Since you didn't specifically mention which drive unit you have, I am going to assume you have the black MKI wheel drive. The two holes on the forward portion of the MKI wheel drive are reinforced from within. They are not just holes drilled into the plastic. They are fully enclosed by the plastic which give it strength. The forces generated by the autopilot to steer your boat are transferred to the wheel by means of the bracket and the hole in the wheel drive. Drilling a hole in the wheel drive may cause a crack in the drive housing because it is not reinforced like the original holes. You do have options as there are areas where you can drill another hole without interfering with the internal parts of the wheel drive. I would strongly suggest that you reinforce the new hold from within before placing the unit into service again. You may be able to epoxy a block of solid fiberglass before drilling the new hold. Do not drill the new hole completely through the fiberglass block. It's a very doable modification.

 

[SoSound]

I'm having trouble picturing how the motor could be secured sufficiently allow it to function at all… But that should be irrelevant.

If I remember correctly, the mounting point for the pedestal bracket is the starting point, with several options for mounting the second half of the wheel drive based on the number of spokes that your wheel has. Or, in other words; once you mount the pedestal bracket and the inner portion of the wheel drive, you should be able to drill the appropriate holes on the other half of the drive to match the spokes on your wheel (three spokes, five spokes, etc.). There may be brackets and rubber spacers necessary to securely attach the spokes to the drive, but those should be available through any Raymarine parts source.

A word of caution; when I disassembled my unit, I found that it had suffered from serious structural deterioration due to exposure to the elements. One half of the drive ring and the internal bearing carrier basically fell apart… But all of the parts were still available to put it all back together.

If you can, search the Raymarine support site for the most detailed installation manuals and parts list you can find. Some are excellent, some are nearly worthless. I did manage to find an appropriate manual and parts list, and in the end I managed to get everything back together again.