Interesting Volvo stern drive steering problem - Any suggestions?

[CLB]

Had a long run today with everything working fine, the suddenly autopilot disconnects as if I had grabbed the wheel and it had autoreleased.

It seems that the boat no longer wants to go to the left. Steering to ten right is fine, with full lock available, but to the left I only get very movement and the wheel goes solid, as if it has reached the end of its travel.

This is obviously what made the AP auto release.

It feels like a mechanical obstruction, but there is nothing obvious.

The system is a rack and pinion cable, fitted to a hydralic steering ram with engine driven power steering.
It is fitted to a Sealine with twin VP stern drives.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what has gone wrong?

Cheers

 

[Richardcm]

Have you had a look down the back of the engines? I had similair problem, turned out it was my torch!

 

[spannerman]

The system is pretty simple, I'd be getting my head round the back of the engines to see if something has come adrift and preventing the steering moving to port. Check the cable where it attaches to the ram and the bar linking the two steering arms to see if a clevis pin has fallen out, or if something has fallen in the way causing an obstruction.

 

[Richardcm]

I had an issue with mine some time back, i found my maglite torch down the back of the engine!

 

[CLB]

Spot on spannerman. Once I had removed some bits for better access it was clear that the autopilot ram was loose and had worked its way along the steering arm so that it was fully retracted when the steering was just slightly turned to port. It was not loose enough to be pushed back though, so stuck in this position. All back in position now and tightened up so hopefully problem solved. Cheers