Autohelm service packs

[samwise]

Our Autohelm 2000+ failed recently during a passage down to Portugal. While at sea, I opened up the unit and the problem appears to be a failure of the thrust washer on the helical, grooved part of the ram. It goes out ok but when the ram is pulled in the gear cluster moves back and almost ( but not quite) slips the belt off the pulley. I made inquiries about a repair in Portugal through a Raymarine agent and the estimate was 440 Euros, which I thought was a rip off. In the event I bought a new unit from the UK and the cost, including shipping was cheaper than the repair quote. I would like to fix the old unit which is not that old, to have as a standby. I understand that there are repair packs available for these units and I would like to try a DIY repair. Does anyone know how you get hold of these packs, what elements they cover and how much they cost. The fluxgate and the electronics are fine as far as I can see, the problem appears to be purely mechanical.

 

[Goldie]

Have you tried asking Raymarine (023 9269 3611)? I think the tech service desk might be ext 1083. They were pretty helpful when I spoke to them recently.

 

[Richard10002]

Ditto... Raymarine very helpful. also Hightech may comment when he sees the thread.

 

[homa]

Have you tried their web page - customer service?

Ditto Raymarine helpful service - you can even contact them through their web page. I have found them always very helpful. Most of my queries so far have been on retired products like the Autohelm stuff.

 

[AlistairC]

I had a problem with the fluxgate compass on my ST2000+ and I got a replacement from a dealer for £18, I thought that was immensely good value for something so fiddly. (Part only - i fitted it myself)

 

[hightech]

Sounds like the roll pin has sheared in the thrust race section, allowing the leadscrew to alter position when on pull or push.

 

[DaveS]

To answer the direct question re. service packs I would agree with others that Raymarine are the obvious first contact point. Interestingly, my 2000+ failed a year ago and I also bought a new one, but managed to repair the original - so I now have a very useful spare! In my case the plastic bracket at the root of the helix had failed - a conical shaped break - which, since the thrust bearing was now unconstrained, allowed the gear to move in and out, much as you describe. After an immediately failing attempt to fix it with glue I made up a metal plate and used that to sandwich the broken plastic bits between the new plate and the existing alloy gearbox plate, and it's worked fine for the past year.

An interesting aside: in the months preceeding the catastrophic failure I had a series of intermittant odd malfunctions when it lost any proper direction keeping. This proved to be due to a broken O ring that had got lodged in the compass housing and intermittently fouled the compass gimbles...